Modi should not just speak but act: Congress

New Delhi, June 16: Accusing BJP of adopting double standards on issues of crime against women, Congress today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should "not just speak but act" by ensuring the resignation of his Union minister Nihalchand Meghwal in connection with a case of alleged rape.

It also said that while the BJP was raising the issue of rapes in Uttar Pradesh, it was silent on crime against women in Madhya Pradesh. "Our demand is that Modi should not just speak but act. He (Nihalchand) should resign so that there is no pressure and the probe goes on," Shobha Ojha, President of All India Congress Mahila Morcha, said during a briefing at the AICC headquarters here.

She underlined that the victim has said that she is being threatened and induced into withdrawing her complaint. "We want the government to provide security to her," Ojha said.

Meghwal, 42, is the only representative from Rajasthan in Modi's council of ministers. He is the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers. He was named in a FIR filed in 2011 by a woman who alleged that her husband repeatedly drugged her and then allowed his friends, among them Meghwal, to rape her.

Rajasthan Police had, in 2012, closed the case saying the charges were false and fabricated. The woman had then approached a district court which, too, dismissed the charges. She filed a review petition, following which additional district judge issued notices to Meghwal and 17 others in this case last week, asking them to respond by August 20.

Ojha said that the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where several cases of rape have been reported in the recent past, was the same. "They (BJP leaders) talk about dismissing the government when rape happens in Uttar Pradesh but it takes place in Madhya Pradesh, they are silent," she said.

PTI