Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharamn on Friday hit out at the Congress-led Karnataka state government over the incident in Belagavi wherein a Dalit woman was assaulted and paraded naked, saying that there is no hope for justice for the SCs and STs in the Congress rule.
In a post on X, Sitharaman said, “In @INCIndia there is no ‘nyay’ for the SCs and STs. The recent incident in Belgavi, Karnataka falls in the same category as those repeated atrocities against the Dalits seen till recently in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.”
She further said that the backward communities are just mere a votebank for the grand old party. “For Congress the downtrodden are just a votebank,” she said.
BJP president JP Nadda set up a five-member fact-finding panel in connection with the incident. Calling the incident ‘shameful’, Nadda said such heinous crimes are happening at regular intervals since the Congress came to power in Karnataka.
The committee constituted by Nadda comprises BJP’s women MPs namely Aprajita Sarangi, Sunita Duggal, Locket Chatterjee, Ranjeeta Koli and Asha Lakra. The committee has been asked to visit the incident site and submit the report at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the state government over the incident and has sought a report within four weeks.
In a shocking incident, a woman was allegedly assaulted, paraded naked, and tied to an electric pole in Vantamuri village of Belagavi on December 11 after her son eloped with a girl who was going to get engaged with someone else, according to the Karnataka Police.
Eight people have been arrested and a hunt is on for the eight others allegedly involved in the case.
