Crime against women in India is on the rise. And still India is yet to get a stringent law for such heinous crime. Nowadays, just pick up a newspaper or randomly switch to any news channel on your television set, you'll come across another case of sexual harassment.
But rather then ensuring women's safety, people are just talking about rape and sexual abuse. Even our politicians have exhibited their lack of understanding and insensitivity towards this issue. In India, it seems like there is no dearth in the number of political leaders and other public speakers who have made it their sole purpose to comment in a dastardly fashion about rape.
Here are five bizarre statements made by politicians on rape:
'Rape trial should be proportional to victim's age'
Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday said that verdict in rape cases should be pronounced in as many months as the age of the victim and convicts should not be allowed to file mercy petitions. Stressing on the importance of speedy trial and severe punishment, she said, "I urge the government that in rape cases judgement should be pronounced in number of months equivalent to the age of the victim. So if the victim is 20 years old, the trial should be concluded in 20 months." The younger the victim, the faster the trial will be, she said.
"She still called her sister instead of dialling 100."
In a shocking remark on the murder of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad which took place on November 28, 2019, state Home Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali said, "The doctor was educated. She still called her sister instead of dialling 100." "We are saddened by the incident; police are alert and controlling crime. It is unfortunate that she called her sister and not '100', had she called '100' she could have been saved," news agency ANI quoted Mohammad Mahmood Ali as saying.
"How can you call it a gangrape?"
In 2015, Karnataka's then Home Minister K J George stoked a controversy by making an irresponsible statement that two men raping a woman is not gangrape. George said, "How can you call it a gangrape? A gangrape is when four-five people are involved. We should condemn the people who did such an act." The remarks came after media sought a response from George in alleged gangrape of a 22-year-old call centre employee by two men at knife point in their moving van after they offered to ferry her home. The incident took place in South East Bengaluru when the girl was returning from work around 10 pm.
Boys will be boys, they commit mistakes
In April 2014, while opposing death penalty to three men convicted in a gangrape case, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had said, "boys will be boys, they commit mistakes." He had even blamed the girls for rape saying that girls get friendly with boys and when they fight and have differences, they term it as rape.
