Rahul Gandhi slams PM on women safety

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of women safety and questioned his silence on the alleged incidents of rape of girls in some shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a gathering of the Mahila Congress, Mr Gandhi stressed on the commitment of the Congr-ess to pass the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, asking the Congress chief to be responsible in his statements, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reminded him that the BJP has the highest number of women MPs and MLAs and two Cabinet ministers  — Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman — in the Modi government.

Mr Gandhi also promised to bring women to the forefront of the party in framing policy, manifesto and strengthening the organisation. He said his job as the Congress president was to ensure women have equal space in the organisation. Attacking the RSS, Mr Gandhi said, “The RSS and the BJP will never be able to show the country a similar vision. Their parent organisation, the RSS, in its history has never allowed a woman into its organisation.” He added that the ideology of the BJP and the RSS is that India will be run by men, women cannot run this country.

Taking a dig at the government’s campaign of “Beti Bachao, Beti Pad-hao”, Mr Gandhi said that it was actually for “saving the daughters from BJP MLAs”, an apparent reference to some BJP leaders accused in rape cases. He even assured the government that it will have the full support of the Congress if it brings the Women Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha.