The war of words between Opposition parties and the BJP over the violence in Manipur escalated on Saturday after the ruling party raised the issue of crimes against women in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and questioned the “silence” of the Opposition.
Hitting back, Opposition leaders accused the BJP of using “diversionary tactics” to avoid a debate in Parliament on Manipur.
‘False equivalence’
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, ”The Prime Minister and his drum beaters are diverting and deflecting from the enormous tragedy that has overtaken all of Manipur in the past 80 days by creating false equivalence with an issue relating to Rajasthan.”
TMC leader Derek O’Brien accused the BJP of stalling and disrupting the Parliament. “Let the debate on Manipur begin on Monday morning. Let the PM choose where he wants to open the discussion - Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, his choice. Of course, we will, then, participate,” Mr. O’Brien said.
The Opposition parties said that they would have a strategy meeting on Monday and would assemble in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament to press for the Prime Minister’s statement.
Follow live updates on violence in Manipur on July 22
Trading charges
However, the BJP stepped up its attack by highlighting a video of two tribal women being beaten up and stripped in Malda district of West Bengal.
Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “What happened in Manipur is unfortunate, but what happened in West Bengal is more unfortunate. The people who were expressing outrage over the Manipur incident, a similar barbaric incident happened in West Bengal.”
Union Minister Anurag Thakur questioned the “silence” of former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders. “Over one lakh cases of crimes against women have been registered in Rajasthan in the last four years. A total of 33,000 cases pertaining to sexual assault on women in Rajasthan,” Mr. Thakur alleged at a press conference at party headquarters.
Both Mr. Thakur and the Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani also hit out at the Congress for dismissing a Rajasthan Minister who had questioned his own government over crimes against women in the State. “What is extremely alarming is that yesterday from the State of Rajasthan, a Minister spoke up against the crime against women in Rajasthan. However, he was unceremoniously dismissed by the Congress party,” Ms. Irani said.
Also Read: Gehlot hits out at Modi for making reference to Rajasthan in Manipur comments
‘Shrugging off responsibility’
At a press conference in Jaipur, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot hit back by claiming that BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh had recorded the highest number of crimes against women, adding that Rajasthan had a higher number of cases as his government has made the registration of complaints compulsory.
Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Ranjeet Ranjan accused Ms. Irani of selectively raking up incidents in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, while leaving out BJP-ruled States like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, and Delhi, where the police are under the Union Home Ministry’s control.
“WCD minister Smriti Irani is shrugging off responsibility over Manipur horror. This is a government which behaves like a fugitive as it is afraid of the Opposition,” Ms. Ranjan said.
