BHUBANESWAR: A day after the arrest of NSUI state president Udit Pradhan for allegedly raping a 19-year-old girl in Bhubaneswar, posters surfaced in several parts of the capital city demanding the resignation of OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das and giving a call to the people of the state to boycott the Congress’ students wing.
The posters had the photograph of senior Congress leader and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi besides Das and Pradhan. While Gandhi was described in the posters as ‘anti-national’, Pradhan was termed as a ‘rapist’. It was alleged in the posters that Das was trying to mislead the state on the issue of crime against women in Odisha.
Though the BJP distanced itself from the posters stating that it has no connection with them, the OPCC president termed it a conspiracy to derail the movement launched by Congress to expose the state government over the issue of growing crime against women.
Stating that the BJP has become jittery because of the success of the Odisha Bandh of Congress, Gandhi’s public meeting in Bhubaneswar and different activities of the party, Das said that the party’s resolve to fight for justice for women cannot be weakened. Without going into the merit of the rape case involving Pradhan, Das said that it was a conspiracy by BJP and some forces inside the Congress.
Das questioned the police acting so swiftly in a four-month-old incident. “Within hours of filing an FIR, Pradhan was arrested. But in the FM (Autonomous) College incident, an FIR could not be filed even after several months,” he said and added that some big leaders from the state Congress are involved in the conspiracy to belittle him. He, however, refused to take the names of the senior leaders of the Congress.
Referring to the posters, Das said he is not worried about them. “But those who have called our leader (Rahul Gandhi) an anti-national will not be spared,” he said.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Sujit Kumar Das said that the party has nothing to do with the posters which have come up in several parts of Bhubaneswar. Earlier, addressing mediapersons, another party spokesperson Anil Biswal said several leaders in BJD and Congress are involved in cases against women.The Opposition should not mislead the people, he said.