BJP Mahila Morcha State President Ashwini Paranjpe on Friday hit out at Congress over its ‘double standards’ on women’s dignity. Talking to the media she said, “Congress is trying to project the rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination as an attack on women’s honour. She called the claim misleading. “The real issue is not injustice to a woman. The real issue is suppression of important facts in the nomination form,” she said. Paranjpe alleged that Natarajan had failed to disclose her name appearing in a criminal case registered in Telangana.

 

A Congress leader named Kumbham Shivakumar Reddy had been accused by a woman party worker of exploitation, blackmail and threats under the pretext of marriage. Natarajan, then Telangana in-charge, was also named in the case registration. She allegedly sided with the accused instead of supporting the victim, said Paranjpe. Paranjpe raised several questions at Congress. She said why was the Telangana case concealed in the nomination affidavit, why was the woman worker’s complaint not taken seriously and why was no action taken against the accused leader. She said the Supreme Court had also dismissed the petition, upholding the objection filed by BJP regarding concealment of the criminal case.