india

Updated: Jun 10, 2019 17:28 IST

In a veiled attack on ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena raked up the murder of a three-year-old girl in Aligarh to claim that slogans like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ ring hollow.

Without naming the BJP, the Sena said that the political party that led the ‘Nirbhaya’ protests, has a greater responsibility, now that they are in power.

On June 2, a semi-mutilated body of a two-and-a-half year old girl was found near her Tappal home in Aligarh, 2 days after she had gone missing on May 31. The brutal incident led to a national outrage, bringing child and women safety issues back to the fore.

The Sena, in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana, said, “It is a kind of disability in our society. Atrocities against such innocents are still on. At such times, slogans like ‘Beti Bachao…’ seem hollow. This incident is a blot on the humanity and lowers the dignity of the society. We are shaken by this.”

The editorial went on to draw a parallel between the Aligarh murder case and the Nirbhaya gang-rape case of 2012. It said, “When the Nirbhaya gang-rape incident happened, there were people who did not let Parliament function and forced the government at the time to come up with stricter laws to protect women. These people are now in power and therefore, their responsibilities have increased. This (Aligarh murder case) is heinous and has numbed society. There is widespread anger. The pain that the child suffered is extremely unfortunate.”

Despite being in an alliance with the BJP, the Sena, after the Lok Sabha results, has stepped up its attacks on the party in the last 10-days. It had earlier targeted the BJP over rising unemployment and Ram Mandir issue.

The editorial went on to suggest further that the state government was initially lax and acted only after a threat to commit suicide by a family member.

The criticism comes right ahead of Saamana Executive Editor, Sanjay Raut’s meeting with the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, scheduled to discuss Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s visit to Ayodhya later this week.