JAIPUR: Politics over the condition of law and order in Rajasthan has escalated. Rattled over the NCRB data which shows that his state tops in crimes against women and Dalits, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot claims his government's decision to make FIR registration compulsory has contributed to an increased number of these cases. Now, Gehlot has shot off a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah asking him to make FIR registration compulsory for all state governments. But the BJP is in no mood to comply with Gehlot's demand.
"FIRs have been lodged inside SP office and it has brought good results inside Rajasthan. I would like this system to be implemented in the whole country. I have already written a letter to the Home Minister Amit Shah ji yesterday, about the experiments that we have done. I have requested him to implement this in all states irrespective of any political party. The FIRs should be registered, no matter how much the number increases," Gehlot said
Gehlot added that when Rahul Gandhi had visited Rajasthan after the Thanagazi incident many changes were made to the police system and now their priority is to help the complainants get justice. "We decided that FIR will have to be registered irrespective of the crime of any complainant.
However, as the number increases, the government has to face criticism for that. I remember I had said earlier that NCRB figures will increase but we should not care about that, we should give the complainant justice. It should be our job to ensure that we are successful in that", Gehlot exclaimed.
Rajasthan has earned the tag of being the state which has the highest number of rape cases in the country – as the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2019 data has revealed. While Rajasthan recorded 5,997 cases , UP comes second with 3065.
Rape cases in Rajasthan have seen a sharp rise in the last three years. In 2017, 3305 incidents were reported which shot up to 4,335 in 2018 and finally climbed to 5,997 last year. The jump between 2017 and 2018 was 2.4 %; it has almost doubled to 4.2 % from 2018 to 2019.
Interestingly, almost half of 3012 rape cases in the state fall in the category of friends, online friends, live-in partners on the pretext of marriage.
Uttar Pradesh may be in the limelight for the Hathras atrocity, but it is Rajasthan where crimes against Scheduled Castes steadily went up in the last three years as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) records. Rajasthan has also seen a spurt in crimes against SC women over past years its capital Jaipur turns out to be the worst metropolitan city for SCs with a disproportionate share of caste-based crimes.
Though Uttar Pradesh, also the country’s most populous state, reported the highest number of crimes against Dalits in 2019 in terms of absolute number, it was Rajasthan which had the country’s highest rate of crimes against Dalits at 55.6%. In 2018, the crime rate against Dalits was 37.7% and in 2017 it was at 34.7%.
According to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau of 2019, Rajasthan registered an increase of about 50% in crimes against Dalits compared to 2018. As many as 6,794 cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes were reported from the state in 2019 whereas the number of such crimes was 4,607 in 2018. 2018 had also reported a surge of over 8% in comparison to 2017.
BJP leaders are flashing this data on their social media sites to counter the Congress's campaign against the UP government over the Hathras horror. BJP Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore wrote on twitter, "Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ji, no one needs to see but the writing is on the wall. The NCRB figures are screaming out loud that Rajasthan ranks first in rape and second in Dalit oppression."
Meanwhile, Gehlot targeted BJP over Hathras controversy. He said posting a video on social media that the way crimes have been reported in U.P. and the way Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were stopped from visiting Hathras was extremely shameful. He further added that these incidents can happen in any state but the dictatorial style of dealing with them can only happen in BJP rule.