BSP, Cong target BJP govt over harassment of nuns

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday slammed the state government over the alleged harassment of Kerala nuns during their train journey via Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.

“In UP, heinous crimes, especially related to the safety of women, are not stopping which is a matter of grave concern. Incidents of female insecurity in Pilibhit and Gonda, police vandalism in Etah and unloading of Kerala’s nuns in Jhansi from the train are shameful and condemnable. The government should pay attention,” Mayawati tweeted in Hindi while targeting the Yogi Adityanath government on law and order front.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, too, condemned the incident and said that the attack on nuns was a result of the “vicious propaganda” run by the Sangh Parivar.

In a tweet, Rahul said, “The attack in UP on nuns from Kerala is a result of the vicious propaganda run by the Sangh Parivar to pitch one community against another and trample the minorities.”

He added it was time for the nation to “introspect and take corrective steps to defeat such divisive forces”.
In a scathing attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shared a video showing some persons allegedly belonging to the ruling party’s youth wing seeking personal details of some young women commuting on a train. The one-minute and seven-second-long video shared by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra showed some alleged youth-wing members talking to young women commuters onboard a train and seeking their personal details.

Posing a series of questions, the Congress leader asked, ‘Which political party do these goons belong to?’
Sharing the video on micro-blogging platform Twitter, Vadra asked, “Which political party runs the government that enables these goons to harass and demand personal details of young women commuting on a train?”

Priyanka Vadra, while seeking to know as to which party’s student wing these members belonged to, blamed the BJP and its government for giving patronage to these goons.

Linking this incident with the alleged harassment of some Kerala nuns in Uttar Pradesh, she further attacked Home Minister Amit Shah over his remark to give protection to these nuns as ‘poll gimmick.’
However, it is still unknown when and where this video was taken.

It may be recalled that Priyanka, her brother Rahul and her party Congress have been extremely critical of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath regime in Uttar Pradesh.

On Wednesday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, urging him to take action against Bajrang Dal members and police officers of Jhansi who allegedly harassed four nuns while they were travelling by train from New Delhi to Rourkela in Odisha. He said that the nuns were forcefully removed from the train by the Jhansi police without the presence of women police officers and despite nuns showing their Aadhaar cards, the police did not accept those cards, stating that they were fake, and kept the nuns at the police station till late night.

“It was only after the matter was taken up with higher officials and after the intervention of Lucknow IG of police, the nuns and postulants were released from the police station around 11 PM at night,” read the letter.