Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday claimed that Bengaluru had become an unsafe city for women under the Congress government.
“Women safety & security has clearly not been the priority for @siddaramaiah govt. Bengaluru once reputed to be a safe city, has now earned the title of being an unsafe city in the country. @BJP4Karnataka is committed to the welfare of women in all fields! #MahilaShakthiWithBJP,” he tweeted.
Women safety & security has clearly not been the priority for @siddaramaiah govt. Bengaluru once reputed to be a safe city, has now earned the title of being an unsafe city in the country. @BJP4Karnataka is committed to the welfare of women in all fields! #MahilaShakthiWithBJP
— B.S. Yeddyurappa (@BSYBJP) April 28, 2018
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also echoed the sentiment, and said that the Congress government in Karnataka had failed to check crime against women in the state.
"The Congress government failed the state's people in checking crime against women," she said on Saturday, while addressing an interactive women's outreach programme organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit ahead of May 12 Assembly polls.
Dubbing the politicisation of crime against women as "painful", she said that the Congress government had "protected" perpetrators of such crime.
"Crime and violence against women have to prevented through stringent laws and action. The Congress, instead, has protected the perpetrators of crime," the Defence Minister claimed.
The country doesn't need those political parties that only do "lip service" to women and not really act towards women empowerment, the BJP leader added.
In the wake of rape-murder of an eight-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district in January and the sexual assault on a teenager in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao, the central government on April 21 passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, which provides death penalty for those convicted of raping a girl below the age of 12.
Terming Chief Minister Siddaramaiah government "arrogant and corrupt", Sitharaman appealed to the urban women to vote for change.
However, Siddaramaiah was not going to take the BJP's accusations lying down. In response, he took to Twitter to lash out against the BJP and questioned the party's idea of 'Mahila Shakti'.
Quoting Yeddyurappa’s tweet, Siddaramaiah said:
You gave 3 tickets to those who watched porn in Assembly. Your party MLA in UP accused of rape gets protection from law & victim‘s father dies in police custody. Your party MLAs in J&K defend child rapists. This is your track record. How can Mahila Shakti be with BJP? https://t.co/jQFUOcUkmB
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 28, 2018
“You gave 3 tickets to those who watched porn in Assembly. Your party MLA in UP accused of rape gets protection from law & victim‘s father dies in police custody. Your party MLAs in J&K defend child rapists. This is your track record. How can Mahila Shakti be with BJP?” he said.
He also pointed out that with the BJP's blessing, young men and women were attacked in the name of moral policing and women's dresses were regulated.
“Goons with your party’s blessing attack young men & women in the name of moral policing. You guys want to regulate women’s dresses. Trolls associated with your school of thought routinely harass & bully women journalists on Twitter. How do you expect Mahila Shakti to be with BJP?” he pointed out.
Goons with your party’s blessing attack young men & women in the name of moral policing. You guys want to regulate women’s dresses. Trolls associated with your school of thought routinely harass & bully women journalists on Twitter. How do you expect Mahila Shakti to be with BJP?
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 28, 2018
With IANS inputs