The Congress on Sunday lashed out at the Delhi police for landing up at the residence of party leader Rahul Gandhi for the second time to seek information about the ‘sexual harassment’ survivors he had spoken about in a speech during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar, saying that Gandhi had already told another team of the Delhi police on March 16 that he would at least take 7-10 days to furnish the details of the same.
The party alleged that this kind of action by the Delhi police was impossible, without the ruling party’s interference and that the whole situation was “unprecedented and unheard” of in India’s 75 years’ history since Independence and that it “smacks of the worst kind of pettiness and political vendetta”.
Rajasthan chief minister and Congress stalwart Ashok Gehlot, addressing a press conference in Delhi, recalled the post-emergency era when the Janata Party had emerged after defeating the Congress in the 1977 general elections and said, “When the Janata Party had emerged, they too had started these kinds of attacks on Indira Gandhi (former Congress President) but the people gave them (Janata Party) a befitting reply, and in the 1980 elections Indira Gandhi again rose to power. Today what happened is beyond what we expected because the Delhi police were told by Rahul Gandhi that he would answer within 10 days, so what was the urgency?”
Gehlot further said that the whole country was afraid as the ruling dispensation continued to promote politics of hate by inflicting communal issues and creating a gap between the Hindu and the Muslim communities, whereas, on the other hand, Rahul Gandhi was spreading the message of love and raised issues of price rise and unemployment.
Senior lawyer and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi while taking a potshot at the Delhi police stressed that it suffered from a lack of jurisdiction and this was yet another attempt from the government to sensationalise the matter and create a climate of intimidation.
“The Delhi police, which appears to suffer from a lack of jurisdiction, seems to have woken up after 45 days. Till now they had no problem and now on the 16th having agreed to Rahul Gandhi’s request of 10 days to respond they landed up again today morning. This is only to sensationalise and create a climate of intimidation and this is the consequence Rahul Gandhi is facing for raising his deep unanswerable questioning of the government whether inside or outside Parliament,” Singvi said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who was also present, said that he does not see a “middle path” to end the logjam in Parliament and that the ruling party was deliberately doing this to divert the Adani issues that are being raised in Parliament.
“Since 16 parties came together and demanded a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) probe over it (Adani issue) and for 50 minutes Rahul Gandhi spoke of the Adani controversy in the Lok Sabha, the government has formed a strategy to insult him about what he said in Cambridge and London. They are diverting facts when we have cleared out what the situation is. Even after approval from the Lok Sabha speaker, Rahul Gandhi is not being allowed to speak in Parliament. But this will not work as the 16 opposition parties will continue to raise the Adani issue and as the Home Minister says “middle path”, this “middle path is impossible.”
A Delhi police team led by special commissioner of police (law and order) Sagar Preet Hooda arrived at Rahul Gandhi’s 12, Tughlaq Lane residence on Sunday and served a fresh notice in connection with an earlier notice issued to him over his “women are still being sexually assaulted” remark made during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar.
Taking cognisance of social media posts, police had sent a questionnaire to the Congress leader and asked him “to give details about the women who approached him regarding sexual harassment”.
According to police, Gandhi in Srinagar said, ‘’I have heard that women are still being sexually assaulted’’. Police visited him twice and waited for hours to get the details about the survivors of sexual abuse who had approached him to seek security.
Soon after the police served the notice to Rahul Gandhi high drama ensued as a number of party workers gathered outside his residence to stage a protest and raised slogans against the Delhi police and Centre.
The Delhi police have maintained that they only want to take action against the culprits who sexually assaulted the women.
