New Delhi: The infamous 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder of a medical student and many more which followed thereafter across India have prompted politicians from time to time to cite some outrageous reasons on why men brutalise women.
The most recent comes from Maharashtra State Home Minister R.R. Patil who this week beat a hasty retreat after he was reported to have attributed sexual crimes to films, semi-nude photographs and the moral decline in society.
Replying to a debate in the state legislative council, Patil was reported to have also said that deploying one policeman in every household would not bring down the rising cases of crimes against women. But with the activists slamming his statement, Patil clarified that his statement was twisted out of context.
Similarly, Home Minister of Chhattisgarh Ramsevak Paikra last week said rapes did not happen on purpose.
“Such incidents do not happen deliberately. These kind of incidents happen accidentally,” Paikra said. Of course, later, he said he was misquoted.
Former Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nanki Ram Kanwar had said: “harm can come on a person if the stars are in adverse positions. We have no answer to this, only an astrologer can predict rape.”
In April this year, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav had said, “boys and girls love each other, later they have differences, and the girl goes and gives a statement that she has been raped. And then the poor fellows are sentenced to death. Should rape cases lead to hanging? Boys are boys, they make mistakes.”
BJP veteran leader Babulal Gaur was at it again last week when he said: “Rape is a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it is right, sometimes it is wrong. Until there is a complaint, nothing can happen. Unless the person wants, no one can dare touch her. The item numbers in films create a bad environment. Also foreign culture is not good for India. Women in foreign countries wear jeans and t-shirts, dance with other men and even drink liquor, but that is their culture. It is good for them, but not for India, where only our traditions and culture are ok. Let women consider what is good and bad for them.”
Interestingly, he stood by his comment.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav advised reporters to look up Google to see that his state was not the only Indian state where rapes happened.
Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said this week, “vulgarity, obscenity and violence shown on TV channels is to blame for the multiple incidents of rape and assault in UP. In many places, when the relationship between girls and boys come out in open, it is termed as rape.”
Samajwadi Party has the knack of making irresponsible and sensational comments.
SP leader Abu Asim Azmi had remarked last month, “if you keep petrol and fire together then it will burn. There should be a law to ensure that there should be no ‘nangapan’ (nudity). Those who wear less clothes should also be banned. Fashion and nudity are responsible for the current situation in India. And in rural India, girls don’t go searching out for boyfriends. I support death penalty for the Delhi rapists but there should also be a law that women should not wear less clothes and roam around with boys who are not their relatives. What is the need for roaming at night with men who are not relatives? This should be stopped.”
Last year, leader of khap panchayat of Haryana Jitendar Chattar had commented, “to my understanding, consumption of fast food contributes to such incidents. Chowmein leads to hormonal imbalance evoking an urge to indulge in such acts.”
Likewise, referring to the rape case involving minor inmates of a government-run residential school in UP, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ramesh Bais told reporters earlier this year, “the rape of grown up girls and women might be understandable, but if someone does this to an infant, it is a heinous crime and the offenders should be hanged.”
Puducherry Education Minister T Thiagarajan recently said that girls should wear overcoats so that men are not driven mad with lust.
“The meeting of ministers has resolved to introduce overcoats for girl students, operate special buses for them and ban mobile phones in schools. Our government is committed to ensuring safety of women, particularly girl students,” he told reporters.
Manohar Lal Sharma, a lawyer who represented three of the Delhi gangrape accused, told reporters recently, “the male companion of the murdered 23-year-old was wholly responsible for the incident as the unmarried couple should not have been on the streets at night. Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady. Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect.”
Similarly, self-proclaimed godman Asaram Bapu had said last year, “the Delhi gangrape victim should have taken God’s name and could have held the hand of one of the men and said ‘I consider you as my brother’, and should have said to the other two ‘brother I am helpless, you are my brother, my religious brother.’ In other words, if she had begged for forgiveness and cited the fraternity of man and called to God for help, all would have been well.”
His spokesperson went a step further and said that women who get raped also bear a fraction of the responsibility.
Rajasthan BJP leader Banwari Lal Singhal had demanded a ban on skirts as uniform in schools.
“The intention of this demand is to keep girl students away from men’s lustful gazes and for their comfort in hot and cold weather conditions. Skirts should be replaced by trousers or salwar kameez,” Singhal said.
