Two BJP ministers Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga on Friday submitted their resignations, party general secretary Ashok Koul told Outlook.
Koul said they have submitted the resigations to the party president Sat Sharma. The resignation came in the backdrop of outrage over their particpation in a rally organised by Hindu Ekta Manch rally on March 1. The rally was organised to protest against the arrest of rape accused in the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old child in Kathua.
Meanwhile, breaking his silence over the gangrape case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said crimes against women will not go unpunished.
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“In the last two days, the two incidents which have made news are definitely shameful for any civilised society,” said Modi at a function in Delhi.
Earlier in the day, the BJP, which is facing flak over the Kathua and Unnao rape cases, claimed that its rivals were "selectively" picking the two instances to target it and asserted that stringent action was being taken in both the cases.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi defended the two Jammu and Kashmir ministers of the party, who had joined a march against the police probe into the ghastly rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl in Kathua, saying they were "misled and misguided".
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The party did not share their views and they should have maintained that the law was taking its course, she told a press conference here.
To a question on whether the party would take action against the two Jammu and Kashmir ministers, the New Delhi MP said it was not a "crime" to be misled.
"The lesson for them is allow the law to take its own course before opening your mouth," Lekhi said.
The opposition parties are putting pressure on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to sack the two ministers.
The BJP had maintained that it was an "anti-human" and heinous crime and sought stringent action against the accused, Lekhi said, adding that the "rumour mill" was at work to claim that the saffron party was silent on the matter.
The eight-year-old girl from the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community had disappeared from near her house in Kathua district on January 10. Her body was found a week later.
The police had carried out a "very fair investigation" and arrested eight accused in the case, Lekhi said, while suggesting that the Congress might have had a role in the public protests against the probe.
Bar Association of Jammu president B S Slathia, who was spearheading the protests in Kathua, was Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's polling agent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, she claimed.
The Bar Association of Jammu was also putting pressure on the woman lawyer representing the prosecution not to take up the case against the accused and it showed what kind of "hateful politics" was being practised, Lekhi said.
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She also accused the opposition parties of doing “dangerous politics” over the Kathua and Unnao rape cases.
(With PTI inputs)
