Former prime minister Manmohan Singh's comment on his successor Narendra Modi's silence over the recent rape cases in the country received a caustic rebuttal from Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, on Wednesday.
Defending the delayed response of Prime Minister Modi on the issue, Prasad told reporters, "Prime Minister spoke strongly on rape incidents, terming them shameful and inhuman."
This comes after Singh, often called the 'silent PM' during his tenure, reportedly told a news daily, "Prime Minister (Modi) should follow his own advice to me and he should speak more often."
"Dr. Manmohan Singh, unlike your observation, when Prime Minister Modi says something it's heard and action is taken. Please Dr.Manmohan Singh, don't compare your days with that of Modi Ji's," Prasad hit out.
Recently, the rape of a teenage girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao and the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua shocked the whole country. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was named as prime accused in the former, and was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The BJP again faced the public ire in the Kathua case after two of its ministers, Chandra Prakash Ganga and Chaudhary Lal Singh participated a protest march carried out in support of the accused persons.
It wasn't until Friday that the Prime Minister spoke up on the issue, and assured that the guilty would not be spared.
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