India is waiting for PM Narendra Modi to speak up, Rahul Gandhi tweeted
Continuing his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Kathua and Unnao rape cases that have sparked widespread protests, Congress president Rahul Gandhi today questioned the PM's silence. Calling it "unacceptable", Rahul Gandhi said India was waiting for him to speak up.
In a tweet, the 47-year-old Congress president listed out the two questions he wants the prime minister to answer.
"1. What do you think about the growing violence against women and children?
2. Why are accused rapists and murderers protected by the state?
India is waiting," the 47-year-old Congress president tweeted, using the hashtag "SpeakUp."
Rahul Gandhi's latest jibe comes a day after he led a
midnight march to India Gate in the heart of Delhi demanding justice for the eight-year-old girl who was kidnapped, brutally assaulted and killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua in January, and for the 16-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao who was allegedly raped by BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar last year.
Mr Gandhi had said last night that the
Beti Bachao (Save the girl child) slogan is good. "We are telling him (PM Modi) that he should get down to the job, implement it," the Congress president had said during the protests that are seen to be an effort to put the ruling BJP at the centre and the two states in a spot.
Rahul Gandhi had led a midnight march to India Gate at midnight demanding justice in Kathua, Unnao rape cases
Hundreds of people, predominantly Congress workers, had joined the march, responding to Mr Gandhi's call to join him for "a silent, peaceful, candlelight vigil" to protest violence against women and demand justice.
The Congress has now said it will
stage protests across the country demanding justice in the two cases.
Though the
Kathua rape and murder took place in January, central politicians were largely silent until details in a police chargesheet revealed the sheer cruelty and horror that the child was subjected to before she was killed.
Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh,
Kuldeep Singh Sengar has paraded around all week long denying the accusation of rape, disparaging the girl and her family and hitting out at the media in the Unnao rape case. During that time, his brother Atul Singh was arrested for a
brutal assault on the girl's father, who was not just arrested with severe wounds on his body but who died on Monday in custody.
Kuldeep Sengar was taken in for questioning by the CBI early this morning. The
Allahabad High Court today severely reprimanded the Yogi Adityanath government, and said the approach of the government law officer that the lawmaker could not be arrested at this stage "not only exudes an unpleasant flavour" but raises doubts about the bona fides of top police officers.
CBI officials detained Kuldeep Singh Sengar for questioning at 4 am today
Union Minister Smriti Irani, in her first comments on the two rape cases, condemned "attempts to politicize" the incidents, and said, "
As a woman, I request victim-shaming to be stopped."
Her party's Meenakshi Lekhi too accused the opposition of communalising the Kathua and Unnao rape cases, and said they should not have protested until an investigation was conducted.
"You see their plan, first shout 'minority minority', then 'Dalit Dalit', and now 'women women' and then try to somehow fix blame of state issues on the centre. All this while ignoring the strict action being taken by state governments," she said.