(Image source from: www.indiatoday.in)

The congress leader Rahul Gandhi says, he wont apologize for the comment that he has made on the BJP government. Rahul Gandhi had said, “Narendra Modi has said ‘Make in India’ but nowadays wherever you look, it is ‘Rape in India’. In Uttar Pradesh, Narendra Modi’s MLA raped a woman, then she met with an accident but Narendra Modi did not utter a word.”

The ruling BJP including top ministers like Smriti Irani, tore into the congress leader saying that, “for the first time in history, a leader is giving a clarion call that Indian women should be raped. Is this Rahul Gandhi’s message to the people of the country? He should be punished.”

On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi said that he wouldn’t apologise for what he has said and he needs to give clarification of the words he used and what he meant by saying that.

“I wont apologize…Let me clarify what I said. I said PM keeps talking about ‘Make in India’. so when one opens newspaper one hoped that one would see news about it, but what do we see when we open the papers? We see so many cases of rapes.”

Prime Minister Modi has been accused of trying to divert focus over the Citizenship Act from the protests that are taking place in the northeast.

Rahul Gandhi defended himself posting a tweet along with an old clip of Modi calling Delhi India’s “rape capital”.

Modi should apologise.

1. For burning the North East.

2. For destroying India’s economy.

3. For this speech, a clip of which I'm attaching. pic.twitter.com/KgPU8dpmrE

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 13, 2019

Referring to a program run by the BJP government which seeks to empower the girl child and encourage parents to educate them, Rahul Gandi said that Narendra Modi has spoken about empowering women but he never told from whom the daughters should be saved.

"Narendra Modi says 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' but he never told from whom should daughters be saved. They should be saved from BJP's MLA," Mr Gandhi said.

DMK’s Kanimozhi defended Rahul Gandhi saying that, they respect the PM’s Make in India initiative to grow the economy of our country but the cases of rape in the country are increasing day after day.

"We respect the PM's Make in India initiative. We want economy to grow. But what is happening in the country? That is what Rahul Gandhi intended to say. Unfortunately, Make in India is not happening and women in the country are being raped. This is a concern," Kanimozhi said.

Irani exclaimed that she was “disgusted” and “extremely disheartened” that she couldn’t transcend party divisons even on an issue such as crimes against women, replying to the statement Kanimozhi made defending Rahul Gandhi.

By Shrithika Kushangi