Won't apologize for Rape in India comment: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi says he won't apologize for using the term "Rape in India" for speaking out against sexual crimes against women in the country.

He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is silent on a former BJP lawmaker's involvement in a rape case. Instead, he's training the BJP leaders who launched a furious attack on Rahul Gandhi for his comments this morning which led to the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha being adjourned indefinitely. The Congress leader even accused Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for deflecting attention from the unrest in the Northeast, where angry protests have broken out against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He defended himself in a brief interaction with reporters today, and then posted this tweet, along with an old clip of Modi calling Delhi India's "rape capital":

He added that the Prime Minister is the one who should be apologizing. 

Earlier this morning, both Houses of Parliament witnessed protests against Rahul Gandhi's use of the term "Rape in India", based on the name of a government initiative, Make In India. In the Lok Sabha, BJP leader Arjun Ram Meghwal, the junior minister for parliamentary affairs, said Rahul Gandhi should apologise.

Union Minister Smriti Irani, a longtime rival of Rahul Gandhi's who wrested his Amethi seat from him this year, said he had given "a clarion call" that Indian women should be raped.

When Kanimozhi, a DMK MP, defended Rahul Gandhi's comments, Irani said she was "disgusted" and "extremely disheartened" that she couldn't transcend party divsions even on an issue such as crimes against women.