"Filthy RSS Male Chauvinist Mentality": Rahul Gandhi Slams BJP Lawmaker
New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at a BJP MLA who said rapes can only be stopped if parents teach 'sanskar' or values to their daughters amid nationwide outrage over the alleged gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras.
"This is the filthy RSS male chauvinist mentality at work. Men do the raping but women need to be taught good values," he said, commenting on the BJP leader Surendra Singh's remark on Twitter. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS is the ideological mentor of the BJP which governs UP and at the centre.
With his party's government under searing criticism over the savage assault on the woman and the administration's actions since, the BJP leader had said, "It's the duty of all mothers and fathers to imbibe good values in their daughters and bring them up in cultured environments."
"I am a teacher along with being an MLA. Such incidents (like rape) can be stopped only with sanskar not with shasan (governance) or talwar (referring to sword or might)," Surendra Singh said had on Saturday, when asked about the crimes against women in the state.
The 20-year-old woman, from the long-oppressed Dalit community, was attacked on September 14 in a field near her home in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by a group of so-called "upper caste" men. Her death on Tuesday sparked nationwide protests.
Four suspects were soon arrested but the Yogi Adityanath government faced criticism for forcibly cremating the woman's body on the same night at 2:30 am in a dark field while her parents were locked up in an apparent effort to curb a backlash.
The Congress has hammered the BJP over the incident with Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also a Congress leader, visiting the family on Saturday evening following a dramatic standoff with cops who had laid a siege in the area, blocking politicians and the media.
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
