Hathras incident no different than atrocities on Hindu girls in Pak: Raut

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut Sunday likened the Hathras incident in Uttar Pradesh, wherein a 19-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped and killed, to “atrocities being committed against Hindu girls in Pakistan”.

In a write-up in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, Raut also took a veiled jibe at actress Kangana Ranaut over her “Mumbai-Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK)” remark wondering why nobody has called Hathras a Pakistan yet.

“The Hathras victim was not a celebrity and she was not on drugs. She did not have any illegal construction (built by) spending crores of rupees. She was a simple girl whose dead body was illegally burnt in the dead of the night. All this happened in Yogi's (Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath’s) ‘Ramrajya’ (concept of ideal rule).

“We hear that such incidents happen in Pakistan where Hindu girls are kidnapped, raped and murdered. What happened in Hathras was no different. So far no one has called Hathras a Pakistan," he said in his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’.

Raut said that identity of a rape victim should never be revealed, but a photograph of the Hathras victim in a hospital was circulated. “Those who supported Kangana Ranaut's baseless comments against Mumbai and Maharashtra and demanded justice for her when her illegal construction was pulled down (by the Mumbai civic body last month), are now silent and have become invisible when it comes to demanding justice for the Hathras victim,” he wrote.

He questioned the “silence” of National Commission for Women’s chairperson Rekha Sharma, who had filed a case against Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik for his remarks against Ranaut, in the Hathras case.

“Has justice eluded the Hathras victim because she was a Dalit?" Raut asked. He also criticised Union minister and Dalit leader Ramdas Athawale for “keeping mum” on the case.

"The Dalit movement and Ambedkar thoughts have been destroyed," he said.

Raut said 12,257 incidents of gang-rape have taken reported in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh from 2014 to 2019, “but justice is given considering caste, religion and political affiliations”.

“If a Hathras-like incident had taken place in Maharashtra, demands would have been raised for dismissal of the state government and for imposition of President's rule,” he added. 

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