Sushmita Dev was responding to comments made by Smriti Irani
Attacking the Narendra Modi-led central government for its failure to ensure security to women across India, Woman Congress President Sushmita Dev on Sunday claimed that most rapes were reported from states ruled by the BJP.
"All the BJP-ruled states are seeing the highest rate of rapes. In Haryana, there were 6 rapes within the span of 10 hours, Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) didn't as much as comment on it," she told journalists in Shillong.
"Today, Madhya Pradesh has the highest rate of rapes in the country but the Prime Minister is silent on it. In Rajasthan where rates of rape are also one of the highest, the Prime Minister has never spoken about it.
"Crime against women have gone up all over India, and I can tell you that the BJP government is not at all serious about the security of women," she said.
Sushmita Dev was responding to Union Minister Smriti Irani who, while campaigning in Meghalaya ahead of the February 27 elections, on Saturday raked up the infamous sex scandal of a minor at a guest house run by Meghalaya Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh's son Nathaniel Osbert Rymmai.
Meghalaya Police had arrested four people in connection with the rape case including former independent legislator Julius Dorphang, who is seeking re-election as an Independent candidate from Mawhati assembly constituency.
"I am shocked to see that a central minister visited Meghalaya to highlight the rape of a girl in Meghalaya. I would like to ask her that the 'Biggest Sex Scandal', in the history of India has happened in Gujarat's Kutch, what we call the 'Naliya Kand'," she said.
"It is the biggest sex racket of trafficking in women and sexually abusing women in Prime Minister Modi's own state and in Gujarat, he visited that Kutch region but never mentioned a word about it," Ms Dev said.
"Meghalaya is a progressive state. In the society that we live in Meghalaya, women play an important role and you cannot just raise the issue of one rape in Meghalaya and say that women are unsafe... but, still a rape is a rape, whether it is 1 or 100. We condemn it," she added.