NEW DELHI: The BJP on Tuesday cited a number of recent cases of rapes in Rajasthan to hit out at the Congress leadership, and alleged the state government is busy saving itself instead of serving people.
BJP spokesperson Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an MP from Rajasthan, also reiterated his party's demand for state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's resignation over the phone-tapping done by police during the rebellion in the Congress ranks last year and called for a CBI probe into the matter.
Addressing a press conference, Rathore noted that Rajasthan tops the chart in nationwide crimes against women and said it had registered 6,000 cases in 2019 out of 32,000 across the country as per the NCRB data.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, however, cannot see these crimes and have not uttered a word, he said.
"For a party whose top two leaders are women, this is only possible if the political leadership forgets its prime objective of working for people," he said, hitting out at the Sonia Gandhi-led party.
Mocking Rahul Gandhi, he said there should be a "Rahul Gandhi eye test" and those failing it should be seen incapable of sighting these reports, he said, showing the media reportage of the incidents of rape in Rajasthan.
Attacking the Gehlot government over the phone-tapping, Rathore said the Congress keeps accusing the Modi government of misusing state agencies but it is in Rajasthan where laws were misused to tap telephones of the common man.
It was not done for national security purposes or to check some economic crime but for political reasons, he alleged, seeking a CBI probe.
In the session called on August 14 by the Gehlot government for a floor test after the rebellion by Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs, BJP MLA Kalicharan had asked, "Is it true that phone tapping cases have come up in the last days? If yes, under which law and by whose orders?" In its reply given recently, the Home Department stated that telephones are intercepted in the interest of public safety and order.
"The telephones are intercepted under the provision of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Section 419 (A) of the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, and Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 - after approval by a competent officer," according to the reply.
The department further stated, "Interception cases are reviewed by the chief secretary. All cases up to the month of November 2020 have been reviewed."Neither the MLA asked details about any particular person whose phone was tapped nor did the government gave any specific information about it.
However, the BJP has attacked the government over the issue and demanded Gehlot's resignation, accusing him of misleading the public.
Congress has said it did not tap phone of any MLA or MP.