Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led a midnight candlelight march to the India Gate in the national capital to protest the Kathua and Unnao rape cases with the party leaders alleging that the daughters of the country were not safe in the Modi regime.
Gandhi was joined by his sister Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra as well as scores of Congress leaders, party workers and students, who shouted slogans against the Modi government and the state governments in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, demanding urgent action against the perpetrators of two heinous gangrapes of minors – one in Unnao (UP) and the other in Kathua (J&K).
“We are here against crimes being committed against women, against rapes, violence and murder and the government must act on this. This is a national issue and not a political one,” Gandhi said at the march towards the India Gate. “This is about our women.
Thousands are present here including the common people and people from all parties. This situation in the country is such today that one after another incident of murder, rape and violence is taking place. We are standing here against that and we want the government to act,” he said.
Amid slogans being raised against the government at the protest march, Gandhi said the women of the country are afraid to go out today and the government must ensure their safety and help them live in peace. On the Modi government’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ initiative, Gandhi said it was the right slogan and the Prime Minister must start work on ‘Beti Bachao’. Targeting the BJP over the incidents, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that Modi government does not deserve to be in power.
“This country is outraged over the repeated attacks on women and the repeated protection of the accused by the BJP government. The government would be thrown out if it does not act,” Surjewala said. All arterial roads leading to India Gate were blocked for vehicles as a large number of people joined the late night vigil. Anti-BJP slogans were heard at the march even as senior Congress leaders urged the people to keep it a “silent” protest.
The Congress leaders present at the protest march to the India Gate, which in the past has seen a huge protest in the Nirbhaya rape case, included Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Salman Khurshid, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Sushmita Dev, Haroon Yusuf, Randeep Surjewala and Ambika Soni. Azad said the Modi government was sleeping and those facing the biggest threat were the daughters of the country during the current regime. Several Congress leaders also poked fun at the Modi government’s Beti Bachao slogan, saying the daughters were not safe in the country. Announcing the march, Gandhi had tweeted in the evening,
“Like millions of Indians my heart hurts tonight. India simply cannot continue to treat its women the way it does.” Earlier in the day, Gandhi had expressed anguish and shock on the brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua, and attacked the BJP government in UP for failing to act against its MLA, who is an accused in the Unnao rape case of a 17-year-old girl. “How can anyone protect the culprits of such evil? What happened at #Kathua is a crime against humanity.
It cannot go unpunished. What have we become if we allow politics to interfere with such unimaginable brutality perpetrated on an innocent child?” he said. The Kathua girl, who belonged to the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community, had disappeared from a spot near her house on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area. A Special Investigation Team, formed to probe the incident, has arrested eight people, including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destroying evidence. Jammu has been on tenterhooks since the brutal rape and murder. The city’s bar association has opposed the action against the accused and alleged that minority Dogras were being targeted.
The police had barricaded all the routes leading to India Gate. DPCC President Ajay Maken said, “Atrocities are being committed against women in the country and the government is sleeping. The BJP is not only involved directly, it is also protesting in favour of the culprits and stopping law enforcement agencies from doing their job. It is a sad state of affairs.”