The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the gangrape and death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras and the hasty handling of the case by the U.P. Police.
The three MVA allies — the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress — demanded justice for the woman, who succumbed to her injuries at Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital on Tuesday and was cremated in Hathras in the early hours of Wednesday.
Nawab Malik, NCP spokesperson and State Minority Affairs Minister, said, “There is no longer rule of law in Uttar Pradesh. It belongs to a special few chosen by Chief Minister Adityanath. He has given a free hand to his workers and colleagues. From initially denying the gangrape of a Dalit woman and terming it fake news to secretly cremating the body in the dead of the night, the State has shown there is no longer rule of law.” Mr. Malik said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has even a bit of sadness over the incident, then he must ask the CM to step down.
On Wednesday evening, Ministers from the MVA government and senior Congress leaders took part in a ‘Sanvedna’ (empathy) candlelight march in Mumbai. “The gangrape in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras is a blot on humanity. The family members of the woman were not even given the opportunity to perform the last rites. This is shocking. The recent happenings show that women and girls are not safe in Uttar Pradesh,” said State Congress president and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat.
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said she was “stunned by the cruelty and shamelessness” of the Uttar Pradesh government and its police. “Those who talk of religion are committing anti-religious activities. The secretive manner in which the last rites were performed, by keeping the family away, is nothing less than a sin and a crime,” she said.
