The BJP on Saturday accused the Congress of displaying "selective outrage" in incidents of crime against women and questioned the silence of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over the alleged rape of a six-year-old girl in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district.
Singed by the Uttar Pradesh government’s handling of the Hathras gang-rape incident, the BJP fielded Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to target the Congress.
"The tweet-friendly Rahul Gandhi has not tweeted on the Hoshiarpur incident. There has been no outrage. And no picnic either," Sitharaman told reporters here, referring to the visit to Hathras by Rahul and Priyanka.
The Congress hit back, accusing the BJP of politicising the issue due to Bihar polls. "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," Rahul said.
The party issued a "fact sheet", saying that CM Amarinder Singh and the DGP were personally monitoring the probe in the Punjab case.
The police have already invoked Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the chief minister has insisted on exemplary punishment for those guilty of the crime, Mahila Congress President Sushmita Dev said.
Dev said that the UP government had not bothered to register an FIR for the offence of rape and instead intimidated the victim’s family in the Hathras incident.
(Published 24 October 2020, 17:22 IST)
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