New Delhi, April 14: Blaming the BJP for politicisation of Unnao and Kathau rape cases, the Congress on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for speaking very little on the incidents and not mention the involvement of his own party's people.
It also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) for always trying to erode the legacy of B.R. Ambedkar.
"Prime Minister's speech yesterday (Friday) reeked of politicisation of everything, and blaming the Congress of everything as if the world came into existence in 2014..as if they had started from the scratch.
"PM yesterday broke his silence after protests across the country and that too in just two lines. But he didn't mention that his own people are involved in the cases. The BJP MLA or ministers. The resignation of ministers is just a joke. They gave it to their own party," said senior Congress leader Kumari Selja.
Noting BJP leaders had asked if such incidents have not taken place during Congress' rule, mentioning the Nirbhaya case, she said: "But they (BJP) forget that everyone stood against it that time. There was no politics in it..."
On the RSS and the BJP's view of Ambedkar, she said: "We all know about RSS ideologues' views on Baba Saheb and the Dalits. The Congress had given him the responsibility to draft the India's Constitution."
"The RSS and the BJP even talked about changing the Constitution, questioned reservation. Is this how they show respect to Baba Saheb?
"Simply paying lip service, which the Prime Minister is used to, does not take away from the fact that they are always trying to erode the legacy of Baba Saheb Ambedkar," she added.
Congress also hit out at the government for reducing the sub-plan for SC/ST, and nearly halving the budget for SC schemes.
"Just speeches and words can't fulfill the promises they made to SC and STs. According to NCRB, each day 6 Dalit women get raped...
"Babasaheb's statue have been put in a cage in (Uttar Pradesh's) Badaun. Actually, it is very symbolic as they have put his ideology in a cage," said Selja.
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Electoral bonds: Plea in SC seeks SIT probe into alleged quid pro quo between parties, corporates
New Delhi (PTI): A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe by an special investigation team (SIT) into the alleged instances of "apparent quid pro quo" between political parties, corporates and officials of investigating agencies in donations via electoral bonds.
A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court had on February 15 scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding.
Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India, which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, had shared the data with the Election Commission, which later made the data public.
The electoral bonds scheme, which was notified by the government on January 2, 2018, was pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of its efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
The plea, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, has sought a direction to the authorities to investigate the source of funding of "shell companies and loss-making companies” to various political parties, as has been disclosed through the electoral bonds data.
It has also sought a direction to the authorities to recover the amounts from political parties as donated by companies to them as part of "quid pro quo arrangements where these are found to be proceeds of crime".
