Rape Not a Political But a National Issue: RaGa at Candle March

Rahul Gandhi led a midnight candlelight march to the India Gate to protest the Kathua and Unnao minor rape cases

Rahul Gandhi at the Candle March

(Photo: PTI)

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman/Sunil Goswami

Hundreds flocked to the midnight candle march led by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at the India Gate on Thursday, 12 April, to protest the Kathua and Unnao rape cases. The Congress leaders alleged that the women of the country were not safe under the Modi government.

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

Gandhi joined the protest near Man Singh Road at 11:55 pm.

While sloganeering against the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the march, Gandhi said the women of the country are afraid to go out today and the government must ensure their safety.

In this country, the repeated incidents of murder, rape and violence against women, is the reason why we are here. The government must take action. Today, the women of India are scared, scared to go out. In India, somewhere daughters are getting raped and murdered, and the government must resolve this. So that the women of India can walk on the streets in peace and live their lives in peace.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress President 

“This is a national issue and not a political one", Gandhi added.

(With inputs from PTI)

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What the Protesters Had to Say

“An eight-year-old is being tainted with a Hindu-Muslim tag after being raped, in a country where we have sustained our independence so far”, a Delhi University student told The Quint.

Expressing shame over the incident another DU student said, “We are ashamed to live in a country where people are so concerned about cows and Hindutva but the government is trying to protect the culprit in such heinous crimes”.