Calling the concern of Congress for the members of the Scheduled Caste as ‘hypocritical and full of double standards’, the Union Communications Minister, Ravishankar Prasad today asked why its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi did not pay visits to the house of the brutally murdered Dalit girl in Kerala, and the parents of the youth who was shot dead by an MLC’s son in Bihar.

“Why Rahul, who had twice met the family members of Dalit scholar Rohit Vemula, failed to visit Kerala, where a Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered?” Prasad asked at a press conference in Coimbatore.

Ravishankar Prasad also pointed out that Rahul Gandhi did not utter a word or visit the house of Aditya, who was shot dead by the son of an MLC for overtaking his car in Bihar. “It shows the concern of Congress is hypocritical and full of double standards,” he said.

When pointed out that peopled were criticising BJP for stifling the freedom of speech and the JNU issue, Prasad said, “We, who have seen the emergency and also courted arrest during the period, are committed for freedom of speech and the press. And as far as JNU concerned, it was a long debate,” he said.

About new allegations that Chattisgarh’s BJP chief minister Raman Singh was also involved in the AgustaWestland deal, Prasad said that Singh had clarified on the issue and investigations were on.

On Tamil Nadu elections, the minister said that people wanted a change and there will be a powerful presence of the BJP in the assembly.