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Charges of rape against senior Congress leaders — former chief minister Oommen Chandy and party MP KC Venugopal in Kerala — prompted the BJP to hit out at the party president Rahul Gandhi, calling him “anti-woman” and “frivolous”.
BJP fielded national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi to allege that Rahul Gandhi is making frivolous comments on the Centre’s “Beti Bachao” campaign while he and his party leaders have been accused of serious crimes against women. Gandhi had, at a campaign rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh last week, said the time has come to “save our daughters from MPs and Ministers in the BJP”. This was in the context of sexual harassment charges against former Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar who has since resigned.
Last Saturday, the Kerala police registered rape cases against Oommen Chandy and Lok Sabha MP KC Venugopal based on the complaint by woman. The woman who has been named as an accused in the Solar scam, submitted a complaint to the judicial commission probing the scam that she was sexually abused by Chandy and others.
The BJP said the events in Kerala were symptomatic of a larger malaise in the Congress.
“On October 20, Kerala Crime Branch lodged a rape rape against former chief minister Oommen Chandy and Congress MP KC Venugopal. The complaint says that Chandy raped her at the Chief Minister’s residence while Venugopal raped her at the then Minister AP Anil Kumar’s residence,” said Lekhi.
Attacks Rahul Gandhi
Lekhi said such allegations and cases are not alien to the Congress and even Rahul Gandhi has been accused of rape.
“ There are several such instances of senior Congress leaders abusing women. There was a case of rape against Rahul Gandhi himself. Recently, right under the nose of Rahul Gandhi, a woman accused a Congress IT Cell office-bearer of misbehaving with her but he did nothing till the woman registered a complaint. A woman journalist has recently accused a Minister in the Congress-led UPA government of misbehaving with her,” she said.
“Rahul Gandhi has been making fun of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ which is a serious policy initiative. He has to tell us what action he is going to take against Chandy and Venugopal,” the BJP spokesperson said.
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