Opposition parties upped their ante against the Uttar Pradesh government after an 18-year-old Dalit gang-rape victim lost her battle for life at a Delhi hospital on Tuesday morning. 

Leaders of Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party and social activists staged demonstrations to protest the incident and shame the government for being insensitive towards growing crimes against women. 

On its part, the police cane-charged Congress workers during a demonstration in front of the GPO and arrested more than 50 party workers, including City Congress chief Mukesh Singh Chauhan. 

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government over the incident.

Priyanka tweeted on Tuesday, “A Dalit rape victim died in Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi. For two weeks she struggled with life and death in hospitals. Incidents of rape in Hathras, Shahjahanpur and Gorakhpur have shaken the state.”

In another tweet, she again targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party regime saying : “No semblance of security for women in the state and criminals are committing crimes in the open. It is the responsibility of the UP government to provide safety to women.”

Former chief minister of UP and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati tweeted, “The news of the death of Dalit gang-rape victim of Hathras today is very sad. Government should provide all possible help to the victim’s family and ensure prompt punishment to the culprits by prosecuting them in fast track court.”

In another tweet, she claimed “Even daughters and sisters from other sections of society are not safe in the state. The government must pay attention towards it.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed the death of the Hathras gang-rape victim a matter of shame for the country as well as for the governments and demanded the hanging of the guilty. 

“The death of Hathras victim is shameful for the entire society, country as well as for all the governments. It’s sad that so many daughters are being sexually assaulted and we have not been able to protect them. The guilty must be hanged at the earliest,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan said that the incident had once again exposed the deteriorating law and order in the state. 

“The incident and death of a Dalit girl from Hathras is a matter of shame. The girl was brutally assaulted but the police registered a case of eve-teasing as the accused belonged to a higher caste like the chief minister. When pressure mounted, the police were forced to add sections in the case. Today the girl succumbed and the sole responsibility lies with the chief minister of the state. There is a nexus between criminals and those sitting in power; such incidents like Hathras bring shame to all of us,” Sajan said.