The BJP on Friday sharpened its attack on the Congress on the issue of women’s safety in poll-bound Rajasthan and demanded that former its party president Rahul Gandhi ask Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to tender his resignation.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla asked Gandhi to break his silence and raise questions on the functioning of his party’s government under Gehlot.
This came after a partially-charred body of a woman was found on the side of a road in a village in Jaipur earlier in the morning and the police suspected it to be a case of murder. “This is not just one incident… Rajasthan under Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is leading the country in crime against women,” Poonwalla claimed and cited several other cases of murder, rape and other crimes registered in the state in recent past.
He further claimed that law and order in Rajasthan has been “completely destroyed” in the four and a half years of Congress rule in the state. “Priyanka Gandhi gave a slogan ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti’ (girls can fight) but women in Rajasthan today are asking ‘ladki hoon to kya Rajasthan mein bach sakti hoon’ (If girls are safe in Rajasthan),” he added.
While Prime Minister Narendera Modi has ensured that women enjoy their constitutional right, women’s right to safety is not being ensured in Rajasthan, he charged.
“Congress leaders talk about women safety and empowerment, make big claims about them. Often their leaders and spokesperson indulge in vulture politics raising the issue of women safety in other states,” Poonawalla said.
“Will Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visit Rajasthan, take up the issue (of women safety) in the state with the chief minister and ask for his resignation,” he wondered. The BJP spokesperson referred to some recent cases of crime against women in Rajasthan and said “neither Rahul Gandhi, nor Priyanka Vadra ever come out with a statement condemning these incidents”.
None of the INDI alliance partners have also come out with any statement on these incidents in Rajasthan, he charged. “Why is this selective outrage?” Poonawalla asked Gandhi and the opposition parties’ INDIA bloc in a veiled reference to their stand on violence against women in Manipur.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)