'Glorifying rapists': Congress lambasts BJP for protecting predators in Bilkis Bano case

New Delhi: Congress welcomed the Supreme Court judgment setting aside the premature release of the eleven rapists of Bilkis Bano.

Terming the judgment as revolutionary, Congress asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party to apologize to the nation for the way the rapists were released and celebrated.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi and the president of the All India Mahila Congress Alka Lamba lashed out at the BJP for not only protecting the rapists but also celebrating and glorifying them and even using them for campaigning to win elections.

Singhvi said, the BJP was completely exposed for this shameful act and it will not find a place to hide its face. He gave details as to how after the premature release was challenged in the Supreme Court, the matter was deliberately delayed again and again. So much so, he quoted one of the SC judges remarking whether they (the lawyers for the rapists) were waiting for his retirement.

He said the SC had spoken the truth to the arrogant power and shown it the mirror that shows a horrible image. From its content and the contours it is a revolutionary judgment, he observed.

“It is condemnable what happened and it is condemnable what happened after what happened”, the senior SC lawyer remarked, while pointing out, how the rapists were first released prematurely and then how they were celebrated, garlanded, and offered bouquets and described as coming from “sanaskari parivar” and “Brahmin parivar”.

Blasting the claims and attempts of the government of India to shift the blame on the Gujarat government, which also is a BJP government only, by saying that the decision to prematurely release Bilkis Bano’s rapists was that of the state (Gujarat) government, Singhvi showed the copy of an order of the union home ministry, giving sanction and concurrence for the premature release of eleven people (the rapists).

He pointed out, it was happening under the nose of Prime Minister Modi who has been preaching “beti bachao, beti padhao”, which has turned out to be yet another jumla (gimmick) of this government. He said the hypocrisy and double standards cannot be worse than the double standards of this government.

Singhvi listed the names of several BJP legislators and MPs, who are facing trial or have been convicted of heinous crimes against women like former MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Ram Dular Gaur, Sandeep Singh, and Chinmayanand.

Without mentioning his name, the senior SC lawyer also pointed out how the BJP government in Haryana has been frequently giving parole to Ram Rahim, who has also been convicted of rape. He observed that he (Ram Rahim) must have spent more days outside on parole than inside the jail, thanks to the BJP government.

The Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba demanded that Prime Minister Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party must apologize to the nation after today’s judgment of the Supreme Court. “You are completely exposed and you should apologize to the daughters of the country after the SC verdict”, she told the PM and the BJP.

Expressing apprehensions that the BJP to protect the rapists from the fallout of the SC order, Lamba did not rule out the BJP government bringing some ordinance to circumvent the SC judgment the way it has circumvented SC orders in the past.

Singvi added that there are multiple ways and means that the BJP might use to delay the implementation of the SC verdict which has ordered that the rapists released prematurely must go back to jail within two weeks.