Chandigarh stalking case: Haryana BJP is a divided house - many senior party leaders stand in support of victim

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now a divided house after many of its senior leaders have openly demanded resignation of the Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala on moral grounds after his son has been charged for allegedly stalking the daughter of an IAS officer.

On the other hand, a good number of party leaders and workers are supporting Barala.

BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana, Anil Jain asked the Indian Express, “Why Should he resign?”

Jain added, “The incident did not take place in Haryana. It took place in Chandigarh. Police is investigating the case. The incident did not even take place in Haryana. It took place in Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory. The police is investigating the case. The law will take its course,” Jain added.

While another senior BJP leader and Haryana’s labour minister Nayab Singh Saini told the English daily that the opposition which includes Congress and INLD does not have any issue so they are misguiding the public.

Also Read | Chandigarh stalking case: Girl and her father narrate their experience on Facebook while BJP defends the accused

“Barala is not a tainted leader,” said Saini.

Ramveer Bhatti, Chandigarh BJP vice-president taking side of Barala questioned why the woman was "allowed to stay out late?"

"Parents must take care of their children. They shouldn't allow them to roam at night. Children should come home on time and why stay out at night?" Bhatti questioned.

BJP MP Anurag Thakur supporting the victim tweeted, “I strongly condemn the eve teasing & stalking incident that has taken place.”

Replying to Bhatti’s statement, Thakur had tweeted that men must learn to respect women and their individual space. 

Instead of questioning the girl why she ws out at 12.30am,we must question those individuals & thr mindset tht leads to such harassment. 2/2

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) August 7, 2017

Thakur in the tweet also wrote that instead of questioning the girl why she was out at 12:30 am, we must question those individuals and their mindset that leads to such harassment.

Also Read | Chandigarh stalking case: Cong alleges police trying to save Haryana BJP chief’s son

BJP MP from Chandigarh Kirron Kher, responding to allegations said that "politics will not be played with the case" and added that Chandigarh police was only going by law

Kher had also tweeted, “Incident with young girl from Chandigarh is unfortunate and shouldn’t happen to anyone. We must NOT play politics with woman’s dignity.”

Talking to New18 she had said, “I am glad the girl is safe and nothing bad happened to her. I am sure the police will get to the bottom of the case.”

In 2017, every girl and boy have equal rights to be out at night. We need to respect that right. I condemn statements questioning this.

— Kirron Kher (@KirronKherBJP) August 7, 2017

The BJP MP from Kurukshetra, Rajkumar Saini, has openly demanded for the BJP chief’s resignation on moral grounds.
Talking to media Saine had said on Sunday, “If a leader cannot sensitise his own family members on women safety, he should stay away from public life." 

A woman accused the son of Haryana BJP chief of stalking her and trying to kidnap her in a widely-shared Facebook post. According the complaint lodged by the girl the allegedly chased the 29-year-old woman - the daughter of a bureaucrat - on the streets of Chandigarh late on Friday night and even blocked her way.