New Delhi, Jun 9: Prominent BJP leader and Chhattisgarh home minister Ram Sevak Paikre 's pro-rapist statement has global outrage with international media and leaders of international community pointing fingers at India.

"Such incidents [rapes] do not happen deliberately. These kind of incidents happen accidentally," Ram Sevak told media persons when asked for his thoughts on the gang-rape and hanging of two girls in a neighbouring state. However, later said he had been misquoted.
His original remarks were broadcast on television networks. The remarks come just days after another BJP leader Babulal Gaur, the home minister of Madhya Pradesh s, said about rape: "Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong". Gaur made the remarks on Thursday amid growing anger over the gang-rape and murder of the girls, aged 12 and 14, in the northern Uttar Pradesh state late last month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose party came to power in a landslide election victory, has so far stayed silent over the rapes.
India brought in tougher laws last year against sexual offenders after the fatal gang-rape of a student in New Delhi in December 2012, but they have failed to stem the tide of violence against women across the country.
The chief minister in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, already under fire over his handling of the double gang-rape, accused the victim's families of coming under the influence of a rival political party. Yadav also hinted that his government had taped phone calls between the families and a politician from the Bahujan Samaj party (BSP).
"We have phone records of a BSP MLA [member of the state legislative assembly] … The BSP asked them [the families] to return the compensation offered by the state," Yadav told the Hindustan Times in an interview published on Sunday.
The brother of one of the victims dismissed Yadav's claims, saying the family was not "under the influence of any party, including the BSP".
Yadav's father, Mulayam Singh – leader of the Samajwadi party – was the target of public anger in April when he told an election rally that he opposed the recently introduced death penalty for gang-rapists, saying "boys make mistakes". Women's groups criticised the comments as evidence that politicians were unable to stem sexual violence because they lacked respect for India's women and were ignorant of the issues.



Comments
Add new comment