New Delhi: Union minister V.K. Singh on Thursday came out against the Kathua rape case, saying “we as humans” had failed the eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community who was gangraped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district but she would not be denied justice.
Soon after, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, calling it a “crime against humanity.” Mr Gandhi described the rape and killing of the minor as “unimaginable brutality” that cannot go unpunished, and wondered how anybody can seek to protect the culprits. He also lashed out at the politics being played over the crime. “How can anyone protect the culprits of such evil,” he asked, adding that the violence against the child was a crime against humanity. “It cannot go unpunished,” he said on Twitter.
While the Opposition slammed the BJP top leadership for its silence on the Unnao rape case involving the party MLA, several Union ministers on Thursday sought to defend the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh facing criticism over its response to the alleged gangrape of a minor girl in Unnao, saying it is committed to protecting women and ensuring that law takes its course. The Congress on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged silence over the Unnao rape case and questioned why the accused BJP MLA was yet to be arrested.
Mr Sibal said that once the case is transferred to the CBI, the investigation agency would take its own time to conduct the probe and the MLA concerned would go “absconding” meanwhile. “After some months, the CBI would give a report that he had no role. Some people would again threaten the family (of the victim). We are seeing what’s happening in the country,” he said. The Congress also highlighted statistics from the NCRB to buttress its point that crime against women is highest in states that are being ruled by the BJP.
Taking out pre May 2014 tweets of Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani in which they had attacked the then UPA government on crime against women, Mr Sibal questioned the silence of these ministers. The Congress asked the Prime Minister to explain whether “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” is a slogan or a warning.
