Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that he will not apologise for his ‘rape in India’ remark, over which the Parliament erupted earlier today demanding strict action against him.
Rahul Gandhi, who was not allowed to respond to the remarks of the ruling BJP, including women MPs, in the Lok Sabha by the Speaker, told media persons outside the Parliament: “I won’t apologise… Let me clarify what I said. I said the PM keeps talking about Make In India. So when one opens the newspaper one hopes that one would see news about it, but what do we see when we open the papers? We see so many cases of rapes.”
He further said that “he has a clip on his phone in which Narendra Modi is seen calling Delhi a ‘rape capital'”. The Congress leader said that he will tweet the video so that everyone can see.
Rahul Gandhi also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP of trying to divert attention from protests in the North East against the Citizenship Act.
The BJP raised slogans against Rahul Gandhi in the Lower House over his ‘rape in India’ remark at a rally in Jharkhand and demanded an apology from him.
Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday, while addressing an election rally in Jharkhand took a jibe on the Prime Minister’s pet project ‘Make in India’ and said, “Earlier it was ‘make in India’, but now it is rape in India”.
Taking on the remarks, Union Minister Smriti Irani lashed out at Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha saying that “this is the first time in history that a leader is giving a clarion call that Indian women should be raped”.
“Is this Rahul Gandhi’s message to the people of the country?” she questioned.
“Rahul Gandhi should be punished for mocking his political opponent and calling ‘Come, rape in India’,” she said.