Minister for Women and Child Welfare Lakshmi Hebbalkar has criticised what she said the silence of the BJP leadership on the Hassan sex scandal involving Janata Dal(S) MP Prajwal Revanna.
She told reporters in Belagavi on Monday that most BJP leaders at the national and State-level are silent on the issue.
“Why are senior leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and State-level leaders like the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa silent on the issue? The silence is strange and sad,” she said.
“I want leaders like the former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and others to show the same interest in the case as they showed in the case of the brutal murder of a girl in Hubballi. Stranger is the silence of women leaders of the BJP. I would like to see a massive protest led by MP Mangala Angadi in favour of the women victims of the sex scandal,” she said.
“What has happened in the sex scandal in Hassan is a matter of shame for the whole country. It is being said that Prajwal Revanna has sexually assaulted hundreds of helpless women. Why are leaders of the BJP-Janata Dal(S) alliance not speaking against it? Is it just because Prajwal Revanna is the alliance candidate from Hassan?,” she said.
“Leaders like Mr. Shettar have been showing great interest in the murder of Neha Hiremath in Hubballi. But they are not showing any interest in the case of the women victims of Hassan. Being a woman and Minister for Women Welfare, I would like to see those leaders show the same amount of interest in both the cases,” she said.
She said that the National Commission for Women is yet to act on the Hassan case.
“We condemn any injustice to women. We stand by them. We will ensure that necessary legal steps will be taken. We are not going to mix politics in it. But this is not true of the BJP leaders. They showed great interest in the Hubballi case as it was politically beneficial to them. But here they are silent as the political interests of their alliance partners are involved. Isn’t such a selective stand unfair to hundreds of the women victims in Hassan?” she said.
“Are we to assume that the BJP’s slogans like ‘Nari Shakti, Nari Samman, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, are all mere slogans without any meaning? What is the considered position of Mr. Modi on this issue? He should clarify,” she said.
There are reasons to believe that the facts of the case were brought to the notice of Union Home Minister Amit Shah by BJP leaders like A.T. Ramaswamy and Devaraje Gowda last year itself. But still, Prajwal Revanna managed to get ticket to contest in the elections.
Some time ago, BJP leader Sanjay Patil made a disparaging remark about me and instead of stopping him or advising him, leaders like Ms. Angadi and Mr. Shettar laughed at it. “Is that the true nature of the BJP leaders when it comes to issues concerning dignity of women?” she said.
