Hundreds Join Rahul Gandhi’s March Against Kathua-Unnao Rapes

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will hold the midnight candlelight vigil at India Gate in New Delhi.

Hundreds gathered on Thursday at midnight to protest against Kathua-Unnao rape cases.

(Photo: Mythreyee Ramesh and Aradhya Agnihotri/The Quint)

Hundreds flocked to the midnight candle march led by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at the India Gate in New Delhi to protest the Kathua and Unnao minor rape cases with the party leaders alleging that the daughters of the country were not safe in the Modi regime.

Speaking to the media, Rahul Gandhi said:

This is not a political issue. We stand for women’s safety in India. We want our women to be safe and not live in fear.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi

Gandhi was joined by his sister Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra, as also scores of Congress leaders, party workers and students, who shouted slogans against the Modi government and the state governments in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir and demanded urgent action against the perpetrators of the two heinous gangrapes.

(Photo: The Quint)

(Photo: The Quint)

Announcing the march, Gandhi had tweeted in the evening, "Like millions of Indians my heart hurts tonight. India simply cannot continue to treat its women the way it does." Earlier in the day, Gandhi had expressed anguish and shock on the brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, and attacked the BJP government in UP for failing to act against its MLA, who is an accused in the Unnao rape case of a 17-year-old girl.

"How can anyone protect the culprits of such evil? What happened at #Kathua is a crime against humanity. It cannot go unpunished. What have we become if we allow politics to interfere with such unimaginable brutality perpetrated on an innocent child?" he said.

Several Congress Leaders Present at the March

Several Congress leaders, however, asked the people in the march to keep it a "silent" protest.

The Congress leaders present at the protest march to the India Gate, which in the past has seen a huge protest in the Nirbhaya rape case, included Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Salman Khurshid, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Sushmita Dev, Haroon Yusuf, Randeep Surjewala and Ambika Soni.

Azad said the Modi government was sleeping and those facing the biggest threat were the daughters of the country during the current regime.

Several Congress leaders also poked fun at the Modi government's Beti Bachao slogan, saying the daughters were not safe in the country.

Brutality of the Kathua Rape

His tweet comes after the Jammu Bar Association staged protests against the handling of the case by the Jammu and Kashmir Police Crime Branch. It also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter.

The Jammu High Court Bar Association has opposed the arrest of the eight accused in the case, alleging the action is “targeting minority Dogras.”

Earlier in February, the Hindu Ekta Manch staged protests with the tricolour and demanded the release of a police officer accused in the rape.

The Kathua girl, who belonged to the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community, had disappeared from a spot near her house on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area.

A Special Investigation Team, formed to probe the incident, has arrested eight people, including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destroying evidence.

Jammu has been on tenterhooks since the brutal rape and murder. The city's bar association has opposed the action against the accused and alleged that minority Dogras were being targeted.