Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has launched a sharp attack against Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi, labeling him a 'defender of rapists.' The criticism stems from comments previously made by Joshi regarding the 2022 release of 11 men who had been serving life sentences for the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government, a decision that sparked widespread national debate and was later overturned by the Supreme Court of India, which ordered the men back to prison.

Rahul Gandhi’s remarks serve as a broader critique of the current administration’s stance on crimes against women. While Gandhi frames the Education Minister’s past support for the release of these individuals as disqualifying for a high-ranking official, the report from NDTV focuses on the inflammatory nature of the exchange. There is no public record in this specific report of a direct rebuttal from Pralhad Joshi or the Ministry of Education regarding these specific accusations. The discourse highlights the ongoing political tension surrounding the 2002 riots and the subsequent legal battles involving the perpetrators, which remain a sensitive and polarizing subject in Indian politics. The core of the disagreement lies in whether a public official's past support for the legal remission of convicted criminals should be considered a moral failure that impacts their current fitness for office.