NEW DELHI: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have strongly condemned the brutal murder of a 22-year-old Dalit woman in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, accusing the state government of failing to act on the victim’s family’s pleas for help.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Rahul Gandhi said: “The inhumane and brutal murder of a Dalit daughter in Ayodhya is heartbreaking and deeply shameful”. He claimed that if the administration had responded to the family’s distress calls, which went unheard for three days, the woman’s life might have been saved.
He further slammed the government over increasing incidents of crimes and atrocities against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule. “The Uttar Pradesh government must immediately investigate this crime, ensure the harshest punishment for the culprits, and take strict action against the responsible police officials,” the Leader of the Opposition stated. He also urged the authorities not to harass the victim’s family. The daughters of this country and the entire Dalit community are looking to you for justice, he added.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi also condemned the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government, describing the state as a “Jungle Raj” where “no one listens to the cries of Dalits, tribals, backward and poor.”
“The kind of barbarism that was meted out to a Dalit girl who had gone to listen to the Bhagwat Katha in Ayodhya would send shivers down the spine of any human being. Such cruel incidents shame the entire humanity,” Priyanka Gandhi wrote on X.