Asha Devi, the mother of the Nirbhaya gang-rape-and-murder victim, has lashed out at "people playing with my daughter's death for political gains". Asha Devi's daughter was gang-raped by a six-member gang in December 2012 and died of her injuries later that month.
The video, released by news agency ANI on Friday, shows Asha Devi referring to the continued delay in the execution of the four remaining convicts, who were sentenced to death in 2013.
In the video statement, Asha Devi declared she never liked talking about politics. "But in 2012, after the incident, these same people took to the streets with the tricolour and sporting armbands. They staged rallies on women's safety, they shouted slogans. But these people are now playing with the death of a child,” Asha Devi said.
Alluding to the war of words between the AAP government in Delhi and the BJP-led government at the Centre, Asha Devi said, "Some are saying the other stopped it [the executions]; some say 'Just give us control of the police'.”
She declared these people have "stopped the execution" of the Nirbhaya case convicts for their political benefit. "I am caught between these two opposing forces," Asha Devi lamented in the video.
Asha Devi appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by recalling a slogan raised in his 2014 election campaign: "There have been enough atrocities on women; now, it's time for Modi government".
Appealing to Modi, Asha Devi said, "I plead with folded hands just like you did various things in government like outlawing triple talaq, please don't allow the death of a child to be exploited. Please execute the four convicts and show society that you are a protector of society".
In recent days, the AAP government in Delhi has been accused by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of delaying the execution of the four remaining convicts. On Wednesday, the AAP government informed the Delhi High Court the execution of the four convicts could not take place by January 22 as one of them had filed a mercy plea to the president. A prisoner has to be given time of 14 days to prepare for execution after rejection of his mercy plea.
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The BJP on Thursday blamed the AAP government's "negligence" for the "delay" in the hanging of Nirbhaya gang-rape case convicts, saying it took more than two-and-half years for the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation to give notice to the convicts after Supreme Court rejected their appeal against the death sentence in 2017.
Both AAP and the BJP had staged extensive protests on the Nirbhaya case from December 2012. AAP had been formed just two months before the rape. In December 2013, during campaigning for the Assembly polls in Delhi, Modi, then the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, appealed to residents to remember Nirbhaya. "It (Delhi) has earned bad name as rape capital. When you vote, do not forget this. Remember Nirbhaya for a while," Modi said.
The Congress, which had ruled Delhi for three straight terms till 2013, lost power in the elections.