How does this bode for the women of the country which have been under the rule of the BJP government for the past ten years? The BJP for one has not shied often from supporting men accused of rape and violence against women. 

While the BJP’s website repeatedly talks about Nari Shakti, and the need for removing discrimination and also to give the girl child ‘special emphasis’, BJP MPs and MLAs have often subjected their very own women colleagues to derogatory comments. 

BJP politicians have also not seemed to spare women in power that belong to the opposition. 

The PM Modi himself is not shy of having made comments many considered sexist. In 2018, he referred to Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi as ‘widow’ in a speech, “Ye Congress ki kaun si vidhwa thi jiske khate mein paisa jaata tha?” PM Modi did not even spare the families of politicians. When he was the chief minister of Gujarat he was reported once calling Trivandrum MP from Congress, Shashi Tharoor’s wife, Sunanda Pushkar, ‘a 50 crore girlfriend.’ 

The Congress leader is repeatedly hit with such comments. In 2019 Giriraj Singh once made a highly derogatory comment on her when it was in the news that actor Sapna Choudhury would join the Congress, “Rahul’s mother was also in the same profession in Italy and his father made her his own. He (Rahul Gandhi) should also take the family tradition forward and make Sapna his own.”

Crimes against women have been consistently rising in the country. In 2021, out of six million registered crimes, 428,278 cases were categorised as crimes against women. This marked a 26.35% increase over a span of six years since 2016 when 338,954 such cases were recorded. Similarly, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), reported cases of rapes against Dalit women witnessed a troubling 45 percent increase from 2015 to 2020. The data tells us that on an average of 10 incidents of rape against Dalit women and girls are reported daily across India.

What contribution have BJP and their allies’ leaders made to these statistics? In the very recent case of sitting MP from the RD(S), which is part of the NDA alliance, from Karnataka, Prajwal Revanna, who has been noted to have made almost 3000 videos of women being sexually exploited or assaulted, is now reportedly absconding from the country. Sabrang India further noted how several leaders of the BJP have been accused of crimes against women, including MP Brijbushan Sharan Singh, now-convicted Kuldeep Singh Sengar and Ramdular Gond etc. 

Similarly, the BJP’s response to crimes against women has been harrowing. The Hathras rape and murder case of a Dalit woman in UP reveals the harrowing way in which the party has seemingly revealed its position on women’s issues. A young Dalit girl was brutally raped and subjected to brutal and fatal violence by four upper caste Thakur attackers in September 2020. The family of the victim were subjected to threats and fear and intimidation after the incident as it gained limelight. Her family was also denied the right to bury her, as her body was reportedly forcibly cremated by the UP police one night. Similarly, witnesses were also harassed and intimidated during the trial, which resulted in the conviction of only one Sandeep Sisodia, and acquittal of the three others. This took place despite the victim giving a testimony against the four in front of a magistrate before her death. Three Muslims, which included two journalists and a taxi driver, who were visiting Hathras to cover the incident were instead arrested and imprisoned for over three years. Furthermore, a report by The Wire claimed that the UP government, under BJP’s Yogi Adityanath, had tried to use PR firms to push the narrative in foreign media that the victim was not raped. 

Similarly, if we move east to Gujarat, the Bilkis Bano case was a harrowing case from the 2002 Gujarat massacre. Recently, in January 2024 the Supreme Court squashed Gujarat’s BJP-led government that granted remission to her rapists. Before the order was squashed, the rapists were released from jail to be received by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad with garlands and sweets. The rapists were also incidentally seen sharing the stage with BJP MLA and MP in Gujarat in 2023. 

Bilkis Bano had been gangraped in Gujarat while being pregnant. Seven of her family members, including her 3-year-old daughter, were murdered in the horrifying carnage. 

The track record of BJP, its ally parties and organisations, seems to paint a harrowing picture of the BJP’s stance on women’s issues. 

Related

NDA candidate Prajwal Revanna accused of sexually exploiting and videotaping thousands of women

UP government fails to appeal against Hathras gang rape judgment acquitting 3 accused – are we surprised?

Bilkis Bano vindicated!

Justice once more for Bilkis Bano, but what now lies ahead?

The post Report card: BJP and crimes against women appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo Credit: The Hindu

Communal violence erupted in Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday and the main culprit is none less than the BJP MP, Raghav Lakhanpal.
The district’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Love Kumar has ordered the filing of an FIR against Lakhanpal and over 500 others for violence, vandalism and attack on the house of the SSP and the district magistrate’s office.

The trigger for the violence was the insistence of Lakhanpal and other local BJP leaders to take their “Ambedkar Shobha Yatra”  through a communally sensitive area for which the police had refused permission.

No procession has been permitted for the last seven years through Sadak Dudhli, a village with a mixed Muslim and Dalit population on the skirts of Saharanpur city.

Emboldened with Yogi Adityanath’s occupation of the chief minister’s chair in the state, rightwing Hindu groups along with local BJP leaders had announced that this year they will take the procession through the village. And they went ahead with their plan despite denial of police permission.

When the police blocked the yatra’s procession through the Muslim area of the village, BJP supporters went on a rampage and attacked the SSP’s residence. The violent mob also allegedly smashed the CCTV cameras and furniture and set public property on fire. In an attempt to bring the situation under control, heavy police bandobust has been put in place throughout Saharanpur city.

“We will not allow Saharanpur to turn into Kashmir,” the BJP MP has reportedly stated.
     
 

The post BJP MP charged with instigating communal violence in UP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

UP alone gave the party 71 out of the total 80 seats in Lok Sabha seats in 2014 trusting the promises of ‘vikas‘ (development) and ‘achche din‘ (good days).

Notably, Rs 135 crores of these funds not spent in 33 Lok Sabha constituencies where either Dalits or Muslims are in sizeable number, reveals a study conducted by a US-based advocacy group.

Every year, an MP is given Rs 5 crore for development works under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) in his constituency.

While Rs 71 crore remained unspent in 17 Dalit-dominated constituencies, over Rs 64 crore could not be spent in 16 other constituencies where Muslims account for more than 20 percent of the population.

All these 33 seats are represented by BJP MPs.

The fund utilization percentage for 17 Dalit-dominated constituencies stood at 58.91 percent, while that for Muslim-majority constituencies was 67.76 percent.

“Average of the percent utilized for MPLAD funds drops for Dalit seats to 58.9 percent while it goes up significantly for Muslim seats to 67.8 percent. The average of all seats is 60.8 percent,” says the report.

However, if individual performance as for utilization of MPLAD funds is taken into consideration, two of all the 71 BJP MPs have performed the best.

BJP MP Satish Kumar of Aligarh has utilized 86 percent of the Rs 15 crore allotted to him for the development of his constituency. Maneka Gandhi, also from BJP, comes close second with 85.9 percent of utilization.

Kanwar Pushpendra Singh, BJP MP from Hamirpur, is the worst performer who utilized only 17 percent of his funds and Kannauj’s Dimple Yadav of Samajwadi Party, with 24 percent of funds utilization, is second from the bottom.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter
 

The post All UP BJP MPs, except two, measurably failed to spend funds meant for development appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo Credit: DNA

In the build-up to Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, this is what the BJP MP said in his speech at a public gathering in Meerut on Friday:

"If the population is growing astronomically, if the problems are rising, let me tell you that the Hindus are not responsible for it… The people responsible are those who talk of having four wives and 40 children," the BJP MP said while addressing a gathering in Meerut. 

He proceeded to state: “Strict laws are required in this country if we really want to curb population. Parties need to rise above politics and take decision for the sake of the country,” he added.
The offensive remark has come within days of the Supreme Court’s January 2 verdict barring candidates from seeking votes in the name of religion.

Following a complaint filed by Congress leader Shehzad Poonawala, the Election Commission has sought a report from Meerut district magistrate over Sakshi Maharaj's speech. 

Sakshi Maharaj maintained that since he was not speaking at any election rally he cannot be prosecuted. He also claimed that he was speaking up for gender justice.

"I only talked in favor of women who have been made machines in the name of producing children and shameful practices like triple talaq. I should be rewarded for the fact that he and his four brothers have not married and therefore not added to the already exploding population," Sakshi Maharaj he said. 

The BJP, meanwhile, has distanced himself from statements made by the MP, clarifying that it was not the stand of the party.

Excerpts from Congressman Poonawalla’s with the Election Commission:

“I would like to draw the urgent and immediate attention of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) towards an extremely reprehensible and offensive set of remarks, violative of various sections of the Indian Penal Code,1860  made by Shri  Sakshi Maharaj , MP of the Bharatiya Janta Party, for his hate-inciting, communal remarks aimed at polarising the electorate on religious lines. These remarks are a blatant violation of IPC 1860, Model Code of Conduct and the recent verdict by Supreme Court that prohibits politicians from using religion to garner votes.

“The following offensive remarks, brimming with vitriol, were made by Shri Sakshi Maharaj: ‘Population is increased by those who support the concept of four wives and 40 children…

“In the past, whenever elections have taken place in Uttar Pradesh such statements have been made by leaders of the BJP. For example: recently Parvesh Verma of BJP made a communal statement upon which I filed a complaint. Amit Shah, BJP President, during 2014 Lok Sabha polls spoke of "Apman ka Badla" or Yogi Adityanath, BJP MP made statements about ‘Love Jihad’. Both these issues were raised by me before ECI and NCM and despite notices being issued the state authorities failed to act against them as per the law.

“The above statements may seem innocuous on being read without context. But the audience and the location at which these remarks have been made, reveal the sinister design of the said leader/s and party to exploit wounds of the recent communal conflagration in Western Uttar Pradesh.

“This is not a one-off remark made by Shri Sakshi Maharaj . There have been a series of remarks that have been made by various leaders of BJP and Sangh Parivar that show a deliberate attempt on their part to vitiate the atmosphere in the aftermath of the Muzaffarnagar riots and prior to the elections of 2017.

“The above said remarks find no basis in fact and are in flagrant violation of section 153, 153A, 153B, 505 of IPC 1860 and they deliberately, intentionally and maliciously calculated to incite hatred/ill will between communities and cause public mischief. It has violated the recent SC verdict in this regard too. These statements only aim to polarise the electorate along communal lines and have no basis in facts. 

“These statements are also a violation of the Model Code of Conduct set in place by the Election Commission of India and violates section 125 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 which prohibits promotion of enmity between classes in connection with elections and warrants immediate action under the law. The above said offences are both Cognizable and Non-Bailable and are serious in nature. Given that elections are a very serious affair, the implications of such statements on maintenance of law and order and ensuring free and fair elections can be adverse.”

The Complaint makes the following prayers:

a) Direct the registration of an FIR in the instant case against Shri Sakshi Maharaj for violation of various sections of IPC,1860 and the Model Code of Conduct. Also he must be arrested and prohibited from campaigning further in Uttar Pradesh. 

b) Direct the Election Commission of India to take necessary steps against the Bharatiya Janata Party for these remarks made by Shri Sakshi Maharaj as it is violative of various provisions of the Representation of People’s Act,1951 and the Model Code of Conduct.”

The post BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj at it yet again: spews hatred against India’s Muslims. appeared first on SabrangIndia.