Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the rape of a minor at Hoshiarpur in Congress-ruled Punjab, and asserted that, unlike the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress government has not denied the incident or threatened the family of the victim.
Mr. Gandhi, in a tweet said he would go to “fight for justice” in these States as well, if they blocked justice.
“Unlike in UP, the governments of Punjab and Rajasthan are NOT denying that the girl was raped, threatening her family and blocking the course of justice. If they do, I will go there to fight for justice,” Mr. Gandhi said on Twitter with the hashtag #Hathras
Earlier, in the day, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had targeted Mr. Gandhi, and his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, for “selective outrage” over rape, and their silence over the gruesome incident of a rape and murder of a minor in Punjab.
Ms. Sitharaman had also accused the Congress leaders of visiting the Hathras rape and murder victim’s family as if they were going to a “picnic”.
At a press conference, Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev accused the BJP of playing politics over the Hoshiarpur incident because of the Bihar Assembly elections, and targeted Ms. Sitharaman and her colleagues Prakash Javadekar and Harsh Vardhan for questioning the Hathras visit of the Congress leaders.
“I hope that Nirmala Sitharaman-ji will stop displaying her total insensitiveness to such a sensitive issue. Don’t politicise it,” she said, adding, “The nation understands that you have suddenly woken up from your deep sleep because Bihar is in an election mode. There is no second reason. Your party, your leaders and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not see beyond elections and that is why all of a sudden you have decided to make Hoshiarpur an issue.”