The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his televised address to the nation following violent protests demanding justice for the 23-year-old gang-rape victim in Delhi, saying the latter's speech was disappointing.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said Dr Singh failed to give any promises or reassure the country about the steps being taken by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
"The prime minister's message was disappointing. First, he did not spoke a word when the whole nation was agitated for the last one week, now he has said it. But he did not make any promises or he could not reassure the country that the government is taking certain steps," said Javadekar.
"There are two demands which are coming from the people. There has to be a time-bound solution and there have to be more stringent laws," he added.
Javadekar said the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, and the BJP has asked the ruling UPA government to convene a special session of Parliament and hold an all-party meeting to discus the contentious issue and come up with a solution in the interests of the nation.
"Sushma Swaraj and the BJP have given real suggestions, very positive suggestions that there should be a one-week special Parliament session and there should be an all-party meeting. The government should have lapped up these two good suggestions. Instead of accepting it, they are rejecting it as if this is something against the government," said Javadekar.
"This is to reassure the nation that here is a Parliament, here is a democracy which is working and which will discuss the whole law and order situation, how to make a law work because in India it is not the absence of laws in many cases which is the matter of concern. The matter of concern is that there is no implementation of the laws passed and that is the concern and the anguish of the people. And that is why we need to reassure the country through these two measures," he added.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had earlier on Saturday urged the prime minister to convene a special session of Parliament for amending the existing law to provide a death sentence for heinous crimes against women.
"I have just spoken to the prime minister. I requested the prime minister for a special session of Parliament to frame a law to provide for exemplary punishment for crimes against women," she tweeted.
