BJP, AAP play blame game on woman’s death

The Delhi BJP and the AAP on Wednesday traded allegations after suicide of an AAP activist. The BJP claimed the AAP was resp-onsible for the woman’s death and the AAP accused the Opposition party of playing politics over dead bodies.

Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said that the AAP came into existence after unfortunate incident of December 16, 2012 and re-emerged in Delhi with wide support of women. “It is tragic that the party which owes its power source to women has become so unsympathetic to their sad plight.”

Mr Gupta demanded resignation of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal as they had failed to provide safe and secure environment for women activists in their own party, and also in the national capital.

“As a result of the callous attitude of its leaders, AAP women workers are undergoing mental and physical exploitation. There is a long list of sad tale of women workers,” alleged Mr Gupta.

The BJP MLA also demanded that a criminal case must be registered against AAP Delhi in-charge Dilip Pandey as he had failed to take appropriate action against the defaulting male party colleague and tried to patch up the matter. “He (Mr Pandey) exerted pressure on the woman worker to compromise in place of taking legal action against her male colleague,” added Mr Gupta.

Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said the chief minister’s silence had constantly given encouragement to his abusive colleagues — be it suicide or domestic violence complaints against MLAs Somnath Bharti and Manoj Kumar, complaint of a woman worker against Kumar Vishwas or of overall neglect of women leadership in the AAP.

Mr Pandey claimed that the accused Ramesh, who was arrested and later released on bail, was not a member of the AAP and that the party had extended all possible help to the woman. “It is a fact that she had contacted the party. The party assisted her and got an FIR lodged. In fact, the Chief Minister’s Office had called the DCP’s office in this regard, but the police chose not to act and the accused secured bail. BJP leader Vijender Gupta is politicising the issue. He has stalled the post-mortem of the body. The BJP has a history of doing politics over dead bodies,” claimed Mr Pandey.