Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s visit to the family of the Hathras rape victim on Saturday seeks to make multiple political points in times of the corona pandemic.
Both leaders had set the stage for the event early in the morning with a series of tweets. While Ms. Vadra alleged insensitivity of the Yogi Adityanath government by asking the victim’s family to take a narco or lie detector test, Mr. Gandhi had tweeted that “no power could stop him from visiting the family”.
Despite having been stopped at the Delhi-Noida (UP) border for a second time in 48 hours, the Congress leaders managed to reach the village and meet the family. The party’s message is clearly aimed at projecting Mr. Gandhi and Ms. Vadra as determined leaders who are ready to hit the streets even in challenging times.
Caught napping
The contrast is sharp with the major opposition parties in the State — the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) — yet to get off the ground even as the brutal incident sparked off national outrage.
The visit seems to have immediate as well as long term political goals. From projecting the Congress as a serious player in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls to portraying the ruling BJP as anti-Dalit just before the Bihar election, the party seems to have a clear strategy.
“The BJP’s 2014 election manifesto promised. “We will accord the highest priority to ensuring their (SCs and STs) security, especially the prevention of atrocities against SCs and STs”. Is that why the posts of Chairperson of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes and National Commission of Scheduled Tribes have remained vacant for several months?” asked former Finance Minister P Chidamabaram in a tweet, keeping up the pressure.
Moral high ground
“The U.P. government is morally corrupt. The victim didn't get treatment, police didn't write her complaint, her body was burnt forcibly and the family is in captivity and is being pressurised. Now, they are being threatened that a narco test will be done on them. This kind of behaviour is not acceptable to the country. Stop threatening the family of the victim,” Ms. Vadra tweeted in the morning.
In U.P., where the Congress has been out of power for over three decades and still doesn't have much of an organisation, the party is trying hard to occupy the political centrestage by consistently taking on the Yogi Adityanath government.
In May, Ms. Vadra had clashed with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over sending 1,000 buses to transport migrant workers who were walking home on foot during the lockdown.
