Continuing his routine of one-question-a-day to the BJP on the Gujarat model of development, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday raised the issue of women’s safety and development.
Quoting data for 2016 from the National Crime Records Bureau, he said only 3% of those who committed crimes against women were convicted.
The data showed that the State ranked third in human trafficking, fifth in acid attacks and tenth in sexual assaults on minor girls, he said.
“Why do two most important cities, Ahmedabad and Surat, rank among the top 10 cities for crimes against women,” the Congress leader asked.
Gujarat came 20th in education of girls, and literacy among girls dropped from 70.73% (2001) to 57.8% (2011).
Gujarat is safest for women, says BJP
The BJP on Sunday denied the statement of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the safety of women in Gujarat.
“The entire country knows that Gujarat is one of the safest places for women. I don’t know which part of Gujarat Rahul Gandhi visited. This college-level type of poetry doesn’t show seriousness and I think it is time he changed his script writer,” said Jitender Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Congress also alleged that the BJP government in Gujarat was resorting to “violence against political rivals because of fear of losing [the Assembly] elections.”
“The brother of our candidate Indraneel Rajguru, who is contesting against Chief Minister Vijay Rupani [in Rajkot West] was attacked by BJP men. When Congress leaders went to the police station to find what action had been taken, an MP and an MLA were arrested,” Lok Sabha member Sushmita Dev said at a briefing here.
