The Congress on Thursday questioned the credentials of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to hold forth on women’s safety and law and order while campaigning in election-bound states such as Bengal, contending that the crimes against women under his watch were a blot on civilised society.

Referring to the death of a Kanpur man who had lodged a complaint about his daughter’s rape, the Congress also questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the unending horrors of crime against women in Uttar Pradesh and the apathy of home minister Amit Shah who has concentrated his energies on toppling Opposition governments.

Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said: “A very disturbing news from Kanpur — first the rape of a 13-year-old girl, which in itself should shake the collective consciousness of our society, but, what we see after that is even more shameful. Her father is crushed by a moving vehicle and this is a script that gets repeated in Uttar Pradesh.

“This is the same thing that had happened in Unnao. The victim was intimidated, her family members were killed one by one to remove evidence and finally BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was found guilty.”

Shrinate added: “It is no surprise to me that the main accused (in the latest Kanpur case) is the son of an Uttar Pradesh police officer but the abject silence of Yogi Adityanath or Amit Shah or Modi is very, very questionable. They are conspicuous by their silence.

“Adityanath has the time to go and campaign in West Bengal and talk about crime against women, what about your own track record? What is happening in UP and who is going to be responsible for that? Your information officers, your senior police officers, your MLAs, your ministers, their first attempt is to deny rape; and when they fail to do so, they start assassinating the character of the victim herself.”

The Congress demanded the resignation of Adityanath.

Campaigning in Bengal’s Malda on March 2, Adityanath had said: “The law and order in Bengal is in a shambles. Cattle rustling and cross-border smuggling have become commonplace and police and the administration do not take steps against criminals…. Even women aren’t spared. Any government that can’t ensure the safety of women and residents of the state as a whole should not be in power even for a day.”

The Congress on Thursday urged Modi and Shah, who have been focussing on electoral campaigns, to speak on the situation in Uttar Pradesh.

Shrinate said: “Instances after instances — Unnao, Hathras, Barabanki, Shahjahanpur — the kind of political protection that is offered is perhaps the reason for crimes like these and which is why, out of 312 elected BJP MLAs in 2017, 114 face criminal charges and 82 of them, nearly 40 per cent, face grave criminal charges like rape and murder. Can we even expect that people like these will ensure justice?”

The Congress also raised issues like the reports of a Swedish bus maker paying bribes, including to an unnamed minister, in India to win bus contracts in seven states between 2013 and 2016, the abnormally high petroleum prices and the global warnings about erosion of democracy in India to caution voters in the election-bound states against trusting BJP propaganda.

Referring to the report by the Swedish V-Dem institute classifying India as an “electoral autocracy”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “India is no longer a democratic country.”

Turning to corruption, Srinate said: “The reports of the bus contract scam are indeed very, very disturbing. The Scandinavian government reports point a finger at India’s central government, various ministers, various state governments and even the Prime Minister’s Office. The same Prime Minister who used to speak about probity in public life is today forced to remain silent. He does not even want to talk about this. Allegations are against the highest levels of the government. There are pictures of various ministers, including the Prime Minister, with the management of Scania (the company allegedly involved in bribery).”

Showing pictures at the media conference, the Congress spokesperson said: “Modi with the Scania CEO, various pictures are there. There are pictures with surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari. There are also pictures with Vasundhara Raje, who was then the Rajasthan chief minister. With Ravi Shankar Prasad, the law and telecom minister. What is happening? They will have to answer a very basic question, who is responsible for this?

“Their absolute silence, their conspicuous silence cannot be ignored and their absolute conspicuous silence is on account of this government’s complicity. There is no other reason why they are silent. Look at these pictures and they tell you a tale of a lot of proximity. They tell you a tale of lack of accountability. We demand a judicial inquiry.”