Rahul questions Modi's silence on rape cases, atrocities against women
New Delhi, Aug 7 : 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.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
