The BJP hit out at the Congress leadership on Tuesday, citing a host of recent rape cases in Rajasthan and alleging that the state government is focused on protecting itself rather than serving the poor.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, echoed the BJP’s appeal for state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s resignation over police wiretapping during last year’s Congress revolt and called for a CBI investigation.
Mr. Rathore told a press conference that Rajasthan leads the world in national crimes against women, with 6,000 cases recorded in 2019 out of 32,000 nationally, according to NCRB statistics.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on the other hand, are blind to the crimes and have remained silent, according to him.
“This is only possible for a party whose top two leaders are women if the political leadership forgets its primary goal of working for people,” he said, referring to the Sonia Gandhi-led party.
Belittling Rahul Gandhi, he said there should be a “Rahul Gandhi eye test,” and those who fail it must be seen as deprived of perceiving these stories, he said, while showcasing media coverage of rape cases in Rajasthan.
Mr. Rathore criticized the Ashok Gehlot government over phone tapping, saying that while Congress accuses the PM Modi government of misusing state agencies, laws were misused in Rajasthan to tap common people’s phones.
It was done not for national security or to combat economic crime, but for political motives, he said, requesting a CBI investigation.
In the session called by Mr. Gehlot’s government on August 14 for a floor test following the revolt of Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs, BJP MLA Kalicharan asked, “Is it true that phone tapping cases have arisen in recent days? If so, under what statute and under what authority?”
The Home Department recently claimed in its response that telephones are monitored in the name of public safety and order.
According to the answer, “the telephones are intercepted under the provisions of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Section 419 (A) of the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, and Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 – after approval by a qualified officer.”
