New Delhi: Expressing anguish over the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi, women leaders of ruling Congress and opposition BJP - Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj - demanded strong action against the culprits. Sonia and Sushma, in seperate statements, condemned the brutal rape that shook the nation.BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has demanded that the new anti-rape law be made more stringent and provide for death penalty in cases of rape of children and those involving brutality and barbarity."Nothing short of death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity will help," Swaraj said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has also condemned the heinous incident of rape of the five-year-old girl. She has sent out a tough message to authorities that ‘action and not words’ are necessary to stop recurrence of such incidents."Congress President Sonia Gandhi has condemned the heinous incident of rape of the five-year-old girl. She has appealed to the government and the administration that action and not words are required to ensure that such incidents never happen again in future," party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
Gandhi also emphasised the need for ‘awareness’ among citizens to stop such incidents, saying these kinds of crimes can be stopped only when each and every citizen of the country is alert and aware. "The entire society needs to be alert and aware to prevent such incidents," she said.
Sources, meanwhile, said that Gandhi is also likely to visit the victim in AIIMS.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also asked Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence to perpetrators of such brutal crimes."Home Minister should convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity as in the present case," she said, adding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should also be present at that meeting.
Swaraj said the new anti-rape law should include two more provisions for providing death penalty to those who rape children and those who commit heinous and brutal crimes.
The BJP leader said these ‘perverts and sadists’ require shock treatment. "We need to make the recent law more stringent," she said.
She felt there was no let up in rape cases after the December rape incident that shook the national capital. "I had thought that barbarity in Damini case was an aberration. Delhi child rape case has shown that perversity and sadism is common to these criminals," Swaraj said on Twitter.
She also tweeted about another five year old girl child, whom she saw in AIIMS. "I saw another five year old girl child in the next room. She is also a rape victim. She was found abandoned in the AIIMS Campus," Swaraj posted on Twitter."She says her father is a Rickshaw puller. She misses her mother but does not want to go home."

"Doctors told me that only few days back, they discharged a male child who was a victim of sodomy. I think we should hang these criminals and save our children," Swaraj added.BJP leader said the legal machinery should be made more effective so that such cases should not be dragged for years. 'It should not take months to act against the accused,' she said. Swaraj on Friday criticised the police action in curbing protests against such crimes and beating up of young girls protesting the rape incident.