Nun’s rape VATICAN RADIO, GLOBAL MEDIA KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON CASE
TMC blames BJP for protests during Didi’s visit to Ranaghat on Monday
KOLKATA: Political mudslinging overshadowed the gang rape of an elderly nun in West Bengal on Tuesday, with hundreds of Trinamool Congress workers marching in a rally, a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the saffron party and the Left for the incident that hasn’t seen any arrests yet.
Trinamool MPs blamed the BJP for orchestrating angry protests that blocked Banerjee’s convoy Monday evening when she was returning after visiting the 71-yearold nun who was gang-raped at a convent in Ranaghat town of Nadia district last week, a crime that sparked nationwide outrage with activists demanding a CBI probe. “This is a conspiracy by the CPI(M)-BJP. I condemn such politics,” Banerjee was heard shouting at the crowd.
The Criminal Investigation Department, however, said they may be close to the first breakthrough in the case after detaining a person with a strong resemblance to one of the faces captured on CCTV at the convent.
“What happened was clearly the handiwork of the CPI(M) and BJP. It is shameful that despite the best efforts of the CM, Opposition parties are bringing in politics,” said Abir Basu, a Trinamool Congress MLA from Ranaghat.
The Opposition ridiculed the claim, saying the state government was trying to politicise the incident after failing to nab a single culprit, despite television channels showing four of the eight accused.
“To cover up her failure to handle the situation and arrest the culprits, the chief minister is
blaming the BJP,” said Sidharth Nath Singh, party national secretary. The party has planned a protest to the state secretariat on Wednesday.
The Opposition also launched a concerted attack on Banerjee with Congress state president Adhir Choudhury scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee. KOLKATA: The Ranaghat nun gang rape case is being followed by the global media and more closely by the Vatican Radio, sparking a debate as to how safe India is for Christians.
Vatican Radio, which describes itself as ‘the voice of the Pope and the Church in dialogue with the world’, has been covering the incident intensively.
Since Saturday, Vatican Radio has been covering all incremental developments on the attack such as protest marches and statements of condemnation from different bishops in India.
It is clear from the coverage in the global media that their attention was drawn because the incident couples two serious crimes — rape and attack on religious minorities.
Meanwhile, a top-level delegation of the Christian community will visit the convent and the hospital where the nun is recovering on Wednesday.
“The two-member delegation comprises Baselios Cardinal Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and Joseph Chinnayyan, deputy secretary general of the body,” archbishop of Kolkata, Thomas D’Souza, told HT on Tuesday.
VATICAN RADIO HAS BEEN COVERING ALL INCREMENTAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NUN RAPE CASE SUCH AS PROTEST MARCHES AND STATEMENTS OF CONDEMNATION