Opposition parties attacked the UP government and termed the Budaun incident as horrific and shameful. The Congress compared it to the 2012 Nirbhaya incident of Delhi. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government, alleging that there was something wrong in the intentions of the administration on the issue of women’s security. Tagging a media report, Gandhi tweeted: “In Hathras, the government administration did not give an ear to the pleas of people. The government saved the officials and suppressed the voices of the victims.”
“In Budaun, the police station officer did not listen to the one pleading and did not even examine the place of the incident. There is something wrong in the UP government’s intentions on women’s security,” she added. The UP Congress also came down heavily on the government and said that ‘Mission Shakti’ has failed. The party asked Adityanath to apologise to the women of UP for betraying them in the name of Mission Shakti.
Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu termed the incident as horrific and shameful for humanity. “How many more Nirbhayas? How much more of this monstrosity? When will the Adityanath government wake up? Where are our awakened journalists?” the party spokesman said in a tweet in Hindi.
Taking to Twitter, the Samajwadi Party said: “50-year-old Anganwadi assistant, who had gone to offer prayers at a temple in Budaun, gang-raped and murdered. Those in power who only make false claims of women security should drown themselves. The guilty should be punished at the earliest, and justice should prevail.”
The Bahujan Samaj Party also condemned the incident and attacked the government over safety of women in UP. Party chief Mayawati said that the culprits should be brought to the books and stern action must be taken against them.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) also condemned the Budaun incident and said the Yogi Adityanath government has failed in checking crime incidents. Party leaders expressed shock at the police working, saying the cops initially refused to register a case. State secretary Dr Girish said the 50-year-old woman had gone to offer prayers at a temple for good health of her husband. “Which kind of Ram Rajya is it? As if the similar incidents in Hathras, Balrampur and other districts were not enough, the Budaun incident has shaken people to the core,” he said. He added that if the incident had taken place at some other religious place, the BJP workers and leaders would have gone amok.
CPI (ML) leader Sudhakar Yadav said the government should step down as it was an incident akin to Nirbhaya case. “The police saved the miscreants and refused to register a case in this connection,” he said.