Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "silence" on the cases of rapes in the country, especially in shelter homes in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, and said that the 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 questioned as to from whom the daughters should be saved.
"In Uttar Pradesh when women are raped, the Prime Minister cannot speak a single word," Gandhi said while addressing the Mahila Adhikar Sammelan organised by his party here.
"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," he 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."
"In UP, their MLA is a rape accused but the Prime Minister and the BJP President do not speak a word against it," he said, referring to the BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who has been arrested by the CBI 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.
He 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," he said.
Gandhi 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," Gandhi remarked.
"You would be surprised that only Rs 40 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," he lamented.
The Congress leader also slammed Modi for not bringing the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament.
"If they bring the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament, then Congress will support it. And if the government fails to bring the Bill in the House 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 Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) was so male dominated ideologically that it had no place for women.
Blaming the BJP-led Central government, he said there was no institution or minority community in the country which was not under attack under its rule.
Gandhi said the Congress was committed to protecting all institutions and communities and was working with all opposition parties on ideological basis to fight the BJP and RSS.
"The BJP is devastating our country and damaging our institutions. There is no institution in the country which is not under attack.
"Minorities, Dalits, women and tribals: all of them are under attack. It is our responsibility to protect them all and we will not back down. We will defeat the BJP," the Congress President said.
--IANS
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