Following the death of a former Delhi University laboratory assistant on Monday, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress Government for not responding on time.
The party has demanded action against the principal of the college, who allegedly sexually harassed the 35-year-old woman.
Senior BJP leader Vijay Jolly said he was surprised that the Delhi Government had not ordered the suspension of the principal and that he has not been charged for abetting the suicide. “From our understanding, the woman had gone to meet the Chief Minister on September 30. After not being able to meet Ms. Dikshit, she doused herself with kerosene and set herself on fire outside the Delhi Secretariat. No worker or security guard even bothered to stop her,” he said.
Former Delhi Mayor Aarti Mehra, who along with Mr. Jolly had gone to see the victim in hospital on Sunday, also questioned why Ms. Dikshit had not cared to visit her. “We were really shocked looking at her state. She had suffered over 90 per cent burns,” she said. “Despite complaints made to the college authorities, Delhi Commission for Women and the Chief Minister, a life has been lost. Commission chairperson Barkha Singh should resign,” she demanded.
Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel said: “There is no effective mechanism for redressal of cases of sexual harassment faced by women in Delhi, despite the tall claims made by both the Congress Government in Delhi and the UPA Government at the Centre. Women continue to be vulnerable under the present regime.”
He said the ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ created after the December 16 gang-rape was yet to become functional. “The Ministries at the Centre have been fighting to get control of the Rs. 1,000-crore corpus. This shows that the government is not serious in its intent to address the safety concerns of women. The government is only paying lip service to the safety of women,” he added.
