Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday claimed that the Congress government in Karnataka did not take action against JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna, accused of sexually abusing women, for about a year despite being aware of the matter. The Congress was afraid that it might lose Vokkaliga votes and therefore stayed silent until the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections got over, she said, speaking at a meeting with select journalists here.
«The Union home minister (Amit Shah) has made it very clear that we will not tolerate the matters that go against women and on that we stand united. Though the (BJP's) alliance partner has this issue, we have made it clear that it was not acceptable, and let it be investigated,» Sitharaman said, when asked if the scandal will have an impact on her party's performance in Karnataka in the ongoing elections.
It was being claimed that a driver gave a pen drive (allegedly containing evidence of Revanna's acts) to the Congress party and state home minister but they were sitting on this evidence for about a year, and «now the BJP is made to answer because the JD(S) is in alliance with us,» she said.
The ministers of the Congress government knew what was in the pen drive but they did not think that safety of women should be their priority, Sitharaman alleged.