The death of a teenage girl in India’s northern Punjab state, after being thrown off a moving bus by staff who tried to molest her, triggered a furore in the country’s parliament yesterday.
Opposition parties demanded the resignation of provincial chief minister Prakash Singh Badal, whose son owns the company operating the bus involved. The girl (14) was pushed out near Moga, a small town 390km north of New Delhi, on Wednesday.
Mr Badal's son, Sukhbir Singh, is the state's deputy chief minister and their Akali Dal Party is an alliance partner of prime minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Police said the teenager, along with her mother Shinder Kaur and brother Akashdeep, was hurled from the bus, after the driver, conductor and other staff tried to molest her. Police have arrested the driver and conductor, and are searching for others involved.
"The incident reveals the lawlessness and anarchy that prevails in the state," Punjab's Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa said yesterday.
“The transport company owned by the Badals has always been given preferential treatment,” he added.
Aam Aadmi (or Common Man’s Party) MP Bhagwant Mann said the police never checked or impounded Badal’s buses, even if they were involved in accidents.
“The Badals are a law unto themselves in the state and need to be curbed,” he said.
The incident is reminiscent of the December 2012 fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in Delhi. The crime outraged the entire country and led to more stringent laws against rape, voyeurism, stalking and acid attacks on women. But these have not proved to be a deterrent. In Delhi – known as India’s “rape capital” – over 300 rapes were reported in January and February.
