A district-level Congress worker has alleged that she was molested during a candle march held in protest against the Kathua and Unnao rape cases in Mumbai on April 15, PTI reported on Thursday. The woman complained to Congress’ Mumbai chief Sanjay Nirupam.
Nirupam told PTI that the woman sent a text message to him about the alleged incident. “The workers of Youth Congress and National Students Union of India stooped to such low level that they touched, pushed and shoved women workers in an inappropriate manner, making us feel unsafe among our very own party’s male colleagues,” the woman said in her text message, according to PTI. “Sadly, some male workers did this to us only to get ahead in the march so that their faces were captured by the media. I want to know if women workers will be safe in similar events held in future?”
Nirupam called the incident unfortunate and admitted that male workers of the party have a tendency to rush ahead during protest marches. “I have apologised to her for the agony she had to suffer on Sunday,” he told PTI. “I told her that if she wished, I would help her file police cases against the accused. But she told me there was too much crowd, so it won’t be possible for her to identify them.”
He said he will issue a list of dos and don’ts. “If the instructions are not followed, action would be taken,” he added.
On April 12, Priyanka Gandhi was reportedly pushed around by protestors who gathered at Delhi’s India Gate to protest the rising crime against women. She told the protestors to “think about the cause for which you have come here”. “Those who are here to push around people must go home. Now please maintain calm and walk silently,” she told the crowd.
These protest marches were held against the recent incidents of rape in Kathua and Unnao. In the Unnao case, a BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, is accused of raping a teenager in June 2017. In Kathua, eight people are accused of abducting, sedating, repeatedly raping and murdering an eight-year-old in January.
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