National Women Commission member Rekha Sharma who had led a two-member team to inspect the crisis-stricken Nari Niketan on Monday denied their inspection being driven by politics. “We embarked on it, taking a suo motto notice of things happening in the home. The media reports also motivated us. But politics has played no role in it,” she said.
The State BJP leaders had submitted a memorandum a few days after the row assumed acerbic proportions to NWC, asking it to come up with a thorough investigation into the disagreeable happenings dogging the State-run home for the distressed women “Ours is an apolitical commission. It matters nothing whether BJP or Congress is ruling a State. It is not that we have suddenly woken up to the state of things. The commission has been raising issues related to it since 2009. Our work is to champion the cause of the women in distress. We seek to provide them security when they need it,” Sharma clarified.
Asked why the NWC is not referring to the deaths of the inmates that occurred during the BJP regime, Sharma said, “I assumed charge as member of NWC around six months ago. I would not say anything on what happened years ago,” she said.