New Delhi, Sep 10 (UNI) The Congress on Tuesday alleged that under the present BJP led regime at the centre there is a big question mark on issues like women empowerment, bringing women in the manstream and their upliftment.
Addressing a press conference a day after a law student levelled fresh allegations of rape and exploitation against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak said, " the atmosphere in the country at present is turning out to be not so good for the women. 'In the past six months there have been over 24000 FIRs in rape incidents out of which only 4 per cent that is around 900 cases have been disposed of by the police.’’
Referring to the state of Uttar Pradesh, she said,’’the state stands first when it comes to highest number of such crimes that is 3457 out of which only 22 FIRs have been disposed so far.
The blatant example of criminal history is being repeated and it can be seen in the largest state of this country which is ruled by the BJP."
At the press conference, the Congress also played the video of the woman with her face covered in black cloth in which she alleged rape by Chinmayanand.
"A girl came forward and complained that she was raped by BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand for a year. Now there's this video where she's saying that she - the victim - was questioned by Special Investigation Team for 11 hours on Sunday while the accused has not even been questioned for 11 minutes," she said and alleged that the UP Police is acting on the directions of the government .
In this context, she said that when the father of the woman had gone to file a complaint, the police told him to not file a complaint against Chinmayanand but only missing persons report for the victim.
‘’You can see how the police are clearly playing into the hands of the Yogi government. In this incident, one can clearly see the incompetence of the BJP, Modi government and Yogi Adityanath government when it comes to dealing with crimes against women.
With this incident, their anti-women mentality, blatant misuse of power and their image of colluding with criminals came to the fore," she said.
On Monday at a press conference in Shahjahanpur, the woman, who was studying at a law college of which Chinmayanand is the director, claimed that he had exploited many other girls like her, but only she had come forward and filed a complaint. She accused the BJP leader of raping and exploiting her physically for a year. The victim also accused the local District Magistrate of trying to threaten her parents for complaining against Chinmayanand, a three-time MP.
Referring in this context to the Unnao rape case, in which now suspended BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar is behind bars, she said, "Unnao's 16-year-old daughter was raped, even her pleas fall on deaf ears of the Yogi Adityanath government. Her father was killed in police custody, she was driven to attempt suicide, while BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj visited the rape accused in prison.
The victim lost another family member in a mysterious road accident, post which the victim wrote a heart-wrenching letter to the Chief Justice of India after which the wheels of justice started turning.’’
She further said the kind of practices presently prevalent in the state are not in favor of women.
'Rather, they are contrary to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan of Beti Bachao Beti Padao','she said.
The Congress leader questioned as to why the state administration comes alive and act on such matters only when a direction is issued by the court.
She hit out at the women leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party who earlier used to lash out at the previous governments and were now keeping silent when the government in power is of their own party.
UNI APS AR 2003