'BJP wants pardon for fake godmen who rape': Digvijay on Asaram case

New Delhi: Congress leader Digvijay Singh  today kept up the attack on BJP on the Asaram Bapu issue saying it wanted death penalty for rapists living in slums, but pardon for “fake godmen who molest or rape”. “BJP defeats itself always! Wants death penalty for rapists living in slums, & pardon for fake God men who molest or rape. What logic?!?!?!?!”, the Congress General Secretary said on the microblogging site Twitter without directly mentioning Asaram. Yesterday also, Singh had accused BJP of having double standards on the issue. [caption id=“attachment_1070695” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Asaram Bapu. IBNLive image[/caption] At the AICC briefing too, party spokesman Raj Babbar gave more than ample hints that BJP was backing the beleaguered self-styled godman Asaram Bapu who is in the eye of a sexual assault controversy. Babbar said members and leaders of a particular party had been eloquent after the December 16 Delhi gangrape case seeking even death sentence for those involved, but now “there has not been a word from the Leader of the Opposition”, Babbar said in an obvious reference to Sushma Swaraj. Apparently in reference to the statements of some BJP leaders, he said that they showed that who has been backing and protecting the self-styled godman. He brushed aside Asaram’s move to drag Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul into the sexual assault controversy surrounding him, alleging it was at their instance that he has been framed. “Asaram calls himself a saint. Saints are men of wisdom and thought. They always speak with humility and they do not level charges against others, it is not in their nature,” Babbar said having a dig at the self-styled godman. “I am not against any party but people tell me that it is at the instance of madam and her son that this is happening. For four-years-and-a-half those behind (religious) conversions are getting their support,” Asaram said in Bhopal without naming Sonia or Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. PTI