Subramanian Swamy slams Rahul Gandhi: Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Friday launched a fierce attack against Rahul Gandhi and slammed the Congress leader over his ‘rape in India’ remark. Addressing the media along with a group of women MPs from the BJP, Swamy cited data to claim that “rapes in Italy were 20 times more than in India”.

“I would like to point out that even today, India’s rape statistics, as compiled by the World Population Council, New York, is down…far down the list. Italy is 20 times more than India. Rather than search for reasons why this sudden flurry of rapes is taking place, Rahul Gandhi is essentially making fun of India and there shows his mentality,” Swamy told reporters outside Parliament.

“Let him (Rahul) figure out why is this happening. This might be a part of creating a feeling in the entire world that India is falling apart,” the Rajya Sabha MP added.

Rahul Gandhi’s reported remark at an election rally in Godda, Jharkhand, triggered a storm in both Houses of Parliament today with the BJP demanding an immediate apology from the former Congress president. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned amid huge uproar by the ruling party over the issue.

Also Read: Smriti Irani leads BJP’s offensive against Rahul Gandhi over ‘rape in India’ remark, demands apology

In Lok Sabha, Union Minister Smriti Irani led the BJP’s attack, questioning what message Rahul Gandhi intended to send out to the world regarding India.

“This is 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?” Irani said as chants of ‘Rahul Gandhi sharm karo’, ‘Rahul Gandhi maafi mango’ reverberated in the Lower House.

Responding to the charge, Rahul Gandhi described the BJP’s protest as an attempt to deflect attention from the ongoing agitation in the North East over the new Citizenship law.

“I have a clip on my phone in which Narendra Modi ji is calling Delhi a ‘rape capital’,will tweet it so that everyone can see. Just to deflect attention from protests in North East, this is being made an issue by BJP,” Gandhi told reporters.

As per the Rape Statistics report released by World Population Review for 2019, Italy’s rate of rape stands at 7.6 incidents per 100,000 citizens while India’s rate stands at 1.8 per 1 lakh citizens. India ranks 92 on the list topped by South Africa with a staggering 132.4 incidents per 1 lakh citizens. USA features 13th on the list (27.3) while Italy ranks at the 46th spot.