Hathras gangrape victim's family faced most unimaginable assault, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a press conference on Tuesday, launched a scathing attack on the Centre over the recently-passed farm laws and also slammed the Uttar Pradesh government over the Hathras gangrape case . Speaking on why he went to Hathras to meet the gangrape victim’s family, Rahul said, “I wanted that family to know that they are not alone. I told the family that I did not come to meet them only for their sake, but for the lakhs of women who face abuse. (In the Hathras case), the entire administrative machinery of Uttar Pradesh targeted the victim’s family, but the prime minister did not say a word.” Rahul also commented on videos of him being manhandled by the Uttar Pradesh Police and said, “The entire country is being assaulted right now, and so, if I got pushed around a bit, it is not a big deal… the most unimaginable assault was on the victim’s family.” On the farm laws that have recently received the assent of the president, the Wayanad MP said, “The introduction of the farm laws by the [Narendra] Modi government is a way to destroy the existing structure of food security and it is going to affect the state of Punjab the most. It is an attack on our farmers and we will fight it.” He further said, “If the laws were meant to benefit farmers, why did Modi_ji_ not debate them in Parliament? Why were the Bills passed in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic? Why did the prime minister not hold a press conference on them, or speak to Punjab farmers about them?” Rahul Gandhi also commented on the ongoing border standoff between India and China, and said, “Narendra Modi said nobody has taken Indian land. He told this to Opposition leaders. China has taken 1,200 square kilometres of our land, how could they do so? China did so because it knows that the person sitting at the top only protects his image. For saving his image, he will hand over 1,200 sq kms of land to us.”