Rahul: why is PM silent on atrocities against women

Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “silence” on rape cases in the country, especially in shelter homes in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, and said atrocities against women have pushed the country behind by 3,000 years.He also taunted the Modi government over its ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (save daughters, educate daughters) programme and asked from whom the daughters should be saved.“In Uttar Pradesh when women are raped, the prime minister cannot speak a single word,” Gandhi said at a party meeting in New Delhi.“In Jharkhand, he goes and speaks on issues like bullet train, toilets, aeroplanes and other issues but he does not speak a line about women. He remains silent when there are any number of atrocities against women or cases of rape,” Gandhi said.Slamming Modi for his silence on Bihar’s Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, Gandhi said, “a number of minor girls were raped in Bihar. But he cannot speak a single word condemning the incident, while his party members defend the accused.”He said “in UP, their MLA is a rape accused but the prime minister and the BJP president do not speak a word against it.” Gandhi was referring to Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was arrested by in a rape case in April this year.“It has become a trend that every woman in India comes out of her home with fear. When, in front of the prime minister, it is said that your country is not safe for women and your government is unable to provide security to the women, he cannot speak a word,” he said.The prime minister “can go around the world and hug the leaders but he cannot explain why women are not safe in India. He has talked about changing India. He talked about 70 years of Congress rule. He was correct because what is happening to women in the last four years did not happen in last 3,000 years, leave alone 70 years,” Gandhi said.The Congress chief also said that the Modi government brought a programme named ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. “We could not understand from whom they were trying to save the daughters. We have to save the daughters from the BJP MLAs.” “You would be surprised that only Rs40 lakh per district is given to save women under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme. It is shameful. They ended MGNREGA. Lakhs and crores of women were benefited by the scheme. They said that there is no benefit of MGNREGA.”The Congress leader also slammed Modi for not bringing the Women’s Reservation Bill in parliament.“If they bring the bill in parliament, the Congress will support it. And if the government fails to bring the bill and if we come to power we shall get it passed in parliament,” Gandhi said.He also said that Congress was working with other opposition parties to fight the ideological battle against the “purely male-chauvinist” BJP and RSS.Making a stinging attack on the saffron parties, Gandhi said the BJP’s parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh was so male dominated ideologically that it had no place for women.