The BJP on Friday accused the Congress-led Rajasthan government of insulting the families of servicemen after the Rajasthan Police evicted the widows of three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans, slain at Pulwama in 2019, from a protest site in Jaipur.
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Addressing a presser at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, former Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore alleged that the “Congress mindset is of insulting martyrs and their families”.
The three ladies were protesting since February 28, and had launched an indefinite hunger strike six days ago outside Congress leader and former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot’s house, demanding a change in rules, so that their relatives and not just children could get government jobs on compassionate grounds. Their other demands included construction of roads and installation of statues of the jawans in their villages.
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They were removed in the early hours of Friday and shifted to hospitals near their respective residential areas, while their supporters were taken to a police station in Jaipur, according to the Rajasthan Police.
“The Congress has always despised the Army and veerangana (brave women). Rahul Gandhi did the same in the case of the surgical strikes in the Galwan Valley, and now the Rajasthan Congress government is doing the same,” said Mr. Rathore. “The (Rajasthan) Chief Minister (Ashok Gehlot) is refusing to meet the families. There was a lathicharge on the widows, what is the fear of the Chief Minister in meeting these widows and their families. More than 400 schemes are in the name of the Gandhi family but the statue of a martyr cannot be installed,” Mr. Rathore said.
On Thursday, Mr. Gehlot had accused State BJP leaders of “using the widows of the martyrs for their narrow political interests and thus, dishonouring them”, while on the demonstrators’ demands he had asked if it would be “appropriate” to give jobs to other relatives of the martyred jawans, instead of their children.