File photo of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
As a political slugfest erupted over the gangrape of two young girls in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijender Gupta accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of playing "shallow politics" over such crimes and also charged that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had failed to ensure the safety of women.
After Mr Kejriwal hit out at Delhi Police in the wake of the two rape cases, saying the force had "completely failed" to provide safety to the citizens, Mr Gupta accused the AAP of having developed a habit of giving a "political colour" to every "unfortunate" incident.
Terming "unfortunate" the two rape incidents that occurred on Friday, Mr Gupta, who is the Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, said it was "even more condemnable that the chief minister is playing shallow politics over heinous social crimes like rape".
Further, Mr Gupta charged that Delhi government has "totally failed" to provide security to the women as he charged that it was yet to fulfil its promise of installing CCTV cameras for women's security and deploying Home Guards in buses and at public places.
"By not fulfilling these promises and by blaming the Prime Minister and the Lt Governor for the failure to ensure women's security, the chief minister cannot run away from his own responsibility," he said.
Condemning the rapes, Mr Kejriwal said Delhi Police had "completely failed" to provide safety to the citizens even as he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "either act himself" or give the AAP government the authority over law and order in the national capital.
Taking a grim view of the cases, he said in a tweet, "Repeated rape of minors is shameful and worrying. Delhi Police has completely failed to provide safety. What is the PM and his LG doing?"
The BJP and Congress, meanwhile, accused Delhi chief minister of engaging in a "blame game" and "politicising" the issue by raking up the demand of handing over of police to the AAP government.