The Congress on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over reports that the family of the Hathras rape victim was not allowed to perform her last rites and the local administration ‘forcibly’ cremated the body without any family member present.
Also read: U.P. police forcibly cremating Hathras rape victim at night, allege kin
In a series of tweets, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the Chief Minister had “no moral right” to continue in the post following the allegation that the family was locked up in their homes while the 19-year-old rape victim was cremated.
“@myogiadityanath RESIGN. Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in death. You have no moral right to continue as Chief Minister,” she wrote on Twitter.
“I was on the phone with the Hathras victim’s father when he was informed that his daughter had passed away. I heard him cry out in despair. He had just been telling me that all he wanted was justice for his child. Last night he was robbed of the chance to take his daughter home for the last time and perform her last rites,” she said.
In a video statement posted on her Twitter handle, Ms. Vadra asked the Chief Minister why it took him 15 days and a phone call from the Prime Minister to speak on the issue.
“This is the biggest example of how inhuman your government is. What all is happening in Uttar Pradesh and you are not taking responsibility... Is there no concern for women's security in your state? Will you not take responsibility, what kind of a chief minister are you?”, she said.
Rahul: family insulted
In a separate set of tweets, former party president Rahul Gandhi said the incident reflected “a shameful mindset of the UP government to show Dalits their place in society”.
“A daughter of India is raped and killed. Facts are suppressed and in the end, even the family’s right to perform her last rites are snatched away. This is insulting and unjust,” he tweeted with hashtag #HathrasHorrorShocksIndia.
Party general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, “The right of the mother to offer a final journey to her daughter was snatched away. Why were the last rites performed at 2.30 am in the cover of darkness? Yogi must resign”.
Smriti Irani’s “silence”
At the party’s official briefing to media, Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev and former Lok Sabha member Udit Raj questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani and the U.P. government.
Ms. Dev said, “There should be an inquiry against the gross and criminal negligence of the Chief Minister and Home Minister Ajay Bisht”.
“Today, I am ashamed to say that the Union Women and Child Development Minister is also from U.P. and she is silent...The same Prime Minister who had said, Nirbhaya ko yaad rakhna [Remember Nirbhaya] before 2014 elections is dumb and silent today,” she added.
