In greed for power, BJP playing with women's respect, alleges Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the BJP in its "greed for power" is playing with "women's respect" as well as the self-respect of the country.

In a Facebook post, Gandhi shared a video montage built with media reports about incidents of sexual assault to attack the central government.

The video referred to such incidents as the sexual assault on two women who were stripped and paraded by a mob in Manipur, alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers by outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, alleged killing of a woman in Uttarakhand in which the son of a BJP leader was accused, and the release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

"A country which does not respect its women can never progress. In the greed for power, the BJP is playing with both the respect of women as well as the self-respect of the country," the former Congress president said in his post in Hindi.

Gandhi's remarks come amid the opposition's continued attack on the government over its handling of the situation in violence-hit Manipur, where two women were stripped and paraded naked by a mob.

The video of the May 4 incident, which only surfaced earlier this month, sparked nationwide outrage and has since become a polarising political fault line between the ruling BJP and the opposition bloc INDIA.