MALAPPURAM: The BJP is treating women as second-class citizens, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said. He was speaking at a public meeting held as part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra at Pandikkad in Malappuram on Tuesday. He criticised the BJP citing the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari in Uttarakhand. He said the only reason the teen had to die was that she had refused to be a prostitute.
“A BJP leader runs a hotel. His son asks a receptionist at that hotel to become a prostitute. There are messages on her WhatsApp in which she refuses to become a prostitute. They offered Rs 10,000 to Rs 15000 to become a prostitute. When she refused to become a prostitute, she was found dead in a lake. This is the way the BJP treats women in the country.
The chief minister of that state destroyed the evidence in the case. They destroyed the hotel so that nobody could ever find out what happened. This is the ideology of the BJP. Women are second-class citizens for them,” Rahul Gandhi said.
HC DISMISSES PLEA AGAINST BHARAT JODO YATRA
KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking a directive to the state police chief to regulate the Bharat Jodo Yatra by permitting party workers to occupy only half of the road and leave the other portion for the free movement of vehicles and the public. When the petition filed by K Vijayan of Kollam came up before the bench, government pleader submitted that the journey was passing peacefully through the roads in the state.