New Delhi: UP politics hit an all time low on Thursday with two women politicians using rape cases to make political digs at each other.
The UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi first made a derogatory comment referring to Mayawati. Not only was she arrested, but her house was also vandalised and set on fire.
Ironically, Mayawati who was outraged at Ms Joshi's remarks had made a similar comment just a few years ago.
"The girl who was raped in Meerut was given Rs 25,000, the same amount was given to a deaf and dumb newly-wed girl who was raped. In the third instance the father of the raped and murdered girl was given Rs 75,000. I say that such money should be thrown at Mayawati's face and the victims should tell her let her be raped and we will give her one crore rupees," Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.
One of the most offensive comments made against a woman politician. Ironically, from another woman politician and as news spread of her comments, the trouble began.
"Masked men...at least 40...gathered at the Uttar Pradesh Congress chief's house in Lucknow in a high security zone next to the Chief Minister's office. She wasn't home but her staff was mute witnesses to the entire house being set on fire and four cars," said an eyewitness.
The eyewitness further said: "Was right here when they came. There was a lot of noise, I got scared.
There was an altercation after which they started vandalising the house. I quietly sneaked out of the house. They were looking in all rooms for Rita Bahuguna."
Soon after in a midnight crackdown Rita Bahuguna Joshi was arrested in Ghaziabad on her way to Delhi.
And the Mayawati government has thrown the book at her, she 's been charged with delivering an inflammatory speech, using abusive language and under the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act that is a non-bailable offence.
Clearly politicians have short memories, few years ago Mayawati had criticised Mulayam Singh Yadav for distributing compensation to Muslim women who were raped.
"If Mulayam Singh's relatives were raped, would he give them compensation?" Mayawati had said in 2007.
So, can anyone claim the moral high ground here? The larger point remains, the violent crime of rape is being exploited in the worst kind of mudslinging - a new low in the already murky world of UP politics.