The Congress on Wednesday sharpened its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the release of 11 people convicted for rape and murder in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the Gujarat government for allowing the release of gangrape and murder convicts under its old remission policy. Gandhi said that the entire country is seeing the difference between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “words and deeds” since the convicts were released hours after the BJP leader talked about ‘Naari Shakti’, or women power, during his Independence Day speech.
He asked what message is being sent out to the women of the country by those who talk about ‘Naari Shakti’.
“Those who raped a five-month pregnant woman and killed her three-year-old daughter were released during ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. What message is being given to the women of the country by those who peddle lies about ‘Naari Shakti’?,” the former Congress chief said in a tweet.
“Prime Minister, the whole country is seeing the difference between what you say and what you do.”
A row erupted on Tuesday after the 11 men convicted to raping Bilkis Bano, a Muslim women, during the 2002 Godhra riots, killing her three-year-old daughter and 13 others. In January 2008, a special CBI court sentenced all 11 accused to life imprisonment on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family. The Bombay high court later upheld their conviction.
While the revised policy of Gujarat government and the latest guidelines issued by Centre on early release of prisoners has kept those convicted for murder with rape or gang-rape out of the scope, the 1992 policy, under which the convicts had sought remission, did not have the annexure excluding certain categories.
“Mr Modi, the world is watching you and what you will do,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera wrote on Twitter.
