Union minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday slammed the Rajasthan government over the rape of a minor in the poll-bound state and wondered why Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are not talking about the incident.
Responding to questions here, Thakur also claimed that crime against women is on the rise in Rajasthan, where more than 34,000 cases have been registered for such crimes.
"Take the figures of the last five years for Rajasthan. More than two lakh cases of crime against women have been registered," he said.
Thakur said former Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi never lost an opportunity to flag cases of crime against women in other states, but were silent on Rajasthan, "which ranks number one in such crimes".
"Congress government is shielding criminals, women are insecure in Rajasthan where 16-17 cases of rape and crime against women are registered every day," the senior BJP leader said.
Thakur said last time Rahul Gandhi visited Banswara, a Dalit girl was raped, murdered and thrown in a well in nearby Bhilwara. "Then too, he did not visit that place," he said.
"If such incident happens in other states, Congress leaders are the first to tweet, but Rajasthan is number one in rape cases, and crime against women and Congress leaders are silent," he said.
According to National Crime Records Bureau, with 6,337 rape cases, highest in the country, Rajasthan accounts for 21 per cent of all the rape cases registered in the country.
In case of rape of minor girls, Rajasthan accounted for 48.6 per cent of the cases registered in the country. Rajasthan has registered 1,452 cases of rape of minor girls.
"There are 40,056 total crimes against women registered in the state under the Indian Penal Code, including over nine thousand assaults on women with the intent to outrage modesty," NCRB said.
-With PTI Input
