Former Member of Parliament (MP) Chowdhary Lal Singh is set to join the Congress’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Jammu and Kashmir, following which Congress Leader Deepika Singh Rajawat has announced her separation form Party.
On Tuesday evening Deepika took to Twitter and announced that she is resigning from the Indian National Congress party, as the party has allowed participation of Lal Singh in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The Tweets of Deepika Singh Rajawat Read:
In view of Ch. Lal Singh’s proposal of joining @bharatjodo & @INCJammuKashmir allowing the same, I am left with no other option but to resign from @INCIndia Lal Singh was responsible in sabotaging the Kathua rape case in 2018 by brazenly defending rapists.
Lal Singh divided the entire region of Jammu & Kashmir to protect the rapists and
@bharatjodo is ideologically opposite. On ideological grounds, I cannot share the party platform with such a person. @kcvenugopalmp @Jairam_Ramesh @rajanipatil_in @RahulGandhi
Lal Singh became a center of controversy after he publicly supported the accused in the infamous Kathua rape-murder case of an 8-year-old girl from a tribal community in 2018.
Singh, who heads ‘Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party’ after being ousted from the BJP in 2018, on Sunday said that he would be joining the Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Rahul Gandhi, at Gateway of J-K, Lakhanpur.
In a statement, Singh said he has got an invitation to join the Yatra and his conscience forces him to join the rally to fight against the government to “get justice for common man”.
In January 2018, an 8-year-old Muslim girl was raped and killed by seven men in the Rasana village, near Kathua in J-K. The attack jolted the country with several rallies organised in support of the victim.
Singh was a prominent figure in the ‘Hindu Ekta Manch’ rally, which was organised in support of those arrested in connection with the rape and murder case. Defending his decision to stand with the rape accused, Singh had said that it was a “conspiracy” to defame Jammu’s Dogra community.
He was sacked as a Bharatiya Janata Party minister for rallying in support of the Kathu rape and murder accused.
The Controversial Chaudhary Lal Singh
In March 2015, a female doctor in J&K sought the registration of a criminal case against Singh for allegedly misbehaving with her in public. Dr. Gurmeet Kour, the state-run hospital registrar for Psychiatry Diseases, said Minister for Health and Medical Education Choudhary Lal Singh shouted at her in public, leaving her “mentally harassed and wrecked”. Singh claimed that was an attempt to prevent him from bringing an improvement in the health facilities in J&K.
In July 2015, Singh was criticized for touching the collar of a female doctor to fold that correctly in a government hospital in Kashmir.
In 2018 he attended a rally in support of the accused rapists in the Kathua Rape and Murder case. Singh defended his attendance at the rally, stating that he was there to “defuse the situation”. Nonetheless, Singh resigned as a result of the controversy