Turning the tables on Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over his request to convene a two-day special Legislature session to discuss the ghastly Sakinaka rape and murder incident, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asked the Governor to convene a four-day session of Parliament to discuss similar atrocities against women across the country where even the Sakinak incident could be discussed.
In a fresh “war of words” broke out between him and the Governor – this time over the Sakinaka brutal rape and murder incident, the chief minister for joining the Opposition BJP’s clamour for a Special Legislature session to discuss the issue. He said that the Governor echoing the Opposition’s sentiments in a manner he was doing was “detrimental” to the Parliamentary democratic system.
Turning down indirectly the Governor’s requests for a Special Legislature session to discuss the Sakinaka rape and murder incident, Uddhav stated in his four-page letter to Koshyari: “We share the sentiments expressed by you over the atrocities against women in the context of the Sakinaka incident. This issue is not confined to Sakinaka alone, but involves the entire nation. The victim women in the entire country are looking up to the Centre”.
“We request you as the Governor to take up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah so that they can convene a special Parliament to discuss atrocities against women in the country. At this session, the Sakinaka incident can also be discussed,” the Chief Minister wrote.
The Chief Minister was responding to a letter from the Governor seeking a two-day special session of the State Legislature to discuss the Sakinnak incident, Uddhav hit out at Koshyari politely for writing a letter over the incident after a women political (read BJP) met him.
“Today you’re holding the constitutional post as the Governor. But, we know you grew up as a political worker. (You should know) The responsibility of maintaining law and order and also protecting women and ensuring their rights lies with the government headed by a chief minister. You have also come up from four corners of the same precedents and traditions. We have all along benefitted from your experience,” the chief minister while reminding Koshyari not to overstep his brief.
Endorsing the sentiments expressed by the Governor and saying that the issue of women’s safety was not confined to Maharashtra also alone, Uddhav touched a raw nerve, when he cited a slew of incidents of atrocities on women in the BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, BJP-supported Bihar and also Delhi where the police is controlled by the Centre and Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir under central administration.
The incidents that Uddhav referred to were a gang rape committed on a nine-year-old Dalit girl in Delhi, a rape committed by a BJP MP on a party worker in Bihar, rape and death of a kho Kho player in Uttar Pradesh “where Ram Mandir is being constructed” and kidnap and murder of a 25-year-old woman in Ahmedabad on April 17 this year
The chief minister also referred to increased incidents of atrocities against women in Uttra Khand where Koshyari was himself the Chief Minister, and the recurring incidents of rape in Gujarat, a state from where the current Prime Minister and Union Home Minister come from.
“As per statistics, three rapes take place every day in Gujarat. There is a need to debate the issue in the State Legislature to discuss the issue of atrocities on women,” Uddhav prefaced, as he went to urge the Governor to take up the issue with Modi and Shah for convening a special four-day session of Parliament to discuss the incidents across the country, including Maharashtra.
Earlier in the latter, Uddhav said that the state government had arrested the culprit behind the Sakinaka incident within ten minutes of the police reaching the crime site. He said that his government had taken various steps to do justice to the victim girl in the Sakinaka incident.
“We will prosecute the accused through a speedy trial and ensure that he gets the strictest punishment. We have instructions to the police to be ever alert in matters relating to providing security to women. We are setting Nirbhaya squads in each and every police station in Mumbai,” the chief minister, while objecting to the manner in which the Governor joined the Opposition’s clamour for a special Legislature session to overstep his brief.
