PM 'blatantly racist" by bringing in skin colour in poll debate: Chidambaram
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being racist by bringing in skin colour in the poll debate, and said the opposition's support to Yashwant Sinha in the presidential election was not based on the colour of skin.
In a post on X, he said in the last election to the office of President of India, there were two candidates - Droupadi Murmu and Sinha.
While the BJP and its allies supported Murmu, he said 17 Opposition parties, including the Congress, supported Sinha.
"Support for a candidate was not based on the colour of the skin. Opposition to a candidate was also not based on the colour of the skin.Support or opposition was a political decision, and every elector abided by the decision of his or her party," the former union minister said.
"Why did the Hon'ble PM bring the colour of the skin into the election debate," he asked.
"The PM's remarks are completely irrelevant and blatantly racist," the Congress leader alleged.
Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday attacked the Congress over its party leader Sam Pitroda's comments over skin colour and asserted that the countrymen would not tolerate insult on the basis of skin colour.
Hitting out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Modi said he has now understood that the national party sought to defeat President Murmu in the presidential poll as her "skin colour is dark".
Pitroda's comments that people in the eastern parts of the country resembled the Chinese, while those from the south looked like Africans had kicked up a row.
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19-yr-old woman found hanging from tree in UP village; juvenile held
Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
