The Congress party on Thursday suggested that the main Opposition BJP is backing the controversial Asaram Bapu.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh kept up the attack on the BJP on the Asaram Bapu issue, saying it wanted death penalty for rapists living in slums, but pardon for “fake godmen who molest or rape.”
“BJP defeats itself always! Wants death penalty for rapists living in slums, & pardon for fake God men who molest or rape. What logic?!?!?!?!”, Mr Singh said on the microblogging site Twitter without directly mentioning Asaram.
At the AICC briefing too, party spokesperson Raj Babbar gave more than ample hints that the BJP was backing the beleaguered self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is in the eye of a sexual assault controversy.
Mr Babbar said members and leaders of a particular party had been eloquent after the December 16 Delhi gangrape case seeking even death sentence for those involved, but now “there has not been a word from the Leader of the Opposition”, Mr Babbar said in an obvious reference to Ms Sushma Swaraj. Apparently in reference to the statements of some BJP leaders, he said that they showed that who has been backing and protecting the self-styled godman. He brushed aside Asaram’s move to drag Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul into the sexual assault controversy. “Asaram calls himself a saint. Saints are men of wisdom and thought. They always speak with humility and they do not level charges against others, it is not in their nature,” Mr Babbar said. Another Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said, “Why would the Congress bother to conspire against him?”