Political parties condemn police action; Swaraj wants spl Parl session

Political parties today strongly condemned police action against youths protesting Sunday's gangrape even as senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj urged the Prime Minister to convene a special session of Parliament to make existing law on heinous crimes against women tougher by providing for death sentence.

On a day of massive protests in the capital, police lathicharge and firing teargas shells on protesters near Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament House drew flak from BJP and Left parties who attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi accusing them of remaining silent over the gruesome incident.

Swaraj said she had spoken to the Prime Minister and requested him to convene a special session of Parliament to frame a law to provide for exemplary punishment for crimes against women.

The Prime Minister said he will consider the suggestion, Swaraj tweeted.

The party also demanded that both Singh and Gandhi should assure the country on the safety of women.

"The Prime Minister ought to have spoken to them. The police ought to have been sensitive. The way they have been lathi charged, water cannon thrown at them and also the whole handling of the police and the administration is deeply regrettable and condemnable. BJP condemns the police action outright," party Chief Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Castigating the police action against protesters, the Left parties also asked the Prime Minister to assure the nation of stern action against those who brutally assaulted and gangraped a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on Sunday in south Delhi and threw her out of the vehicle along with her male friend.

Asking for an assurance that the government would take urgent steps to check such crimes, CPI National Secretary D Raja said "if the Prime Minister can address the nation on the issue of allowing FDI in retail, why can't he find time to do so when such horrendous crimes against women are taking place."