Zee Media Bureau/Manisha Singh and Kamna Arora
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who is under-fire from Opposition, women`s activist and the common people for his controversial remarks on `rapists` said on Friday that there should be no debate on what he has said.
However, he did say that his party respected women the most.
In a highly insensitive statement Mulayam Singh Yadav had said yesterday that it was wrong to give capital punishment to rapists. Speaking at a rally in Moradabad, Yadav referred to the Shakti Mills rape cases in Mumbai where death penalty was awarded to three rape accused and defended those who commit such heinous crimes, saying boys err at times.
Questioning the death sentence to the three men, Yadav asked, "Should rape cases be punished with hanging? We will bring changes in law when we come to power, he further added.
"Ladkon se aisi galtiyan ho jaati hain to iska ye matlab nahin ki phaansi de di jaye (Boys do make such mistakes but that does not mean that they should be sent to the gallows)," he told the gathering.
"Death penalty for rape is unfair...will change rape laws when we come to power," Mulayam Singh said.
"If boys and girls have difference, and the girl goes and gives a statement that I have been raped, then the poor fellows are punished."
"Two or three have been given the death sentence in Mumbai. We will change such laws when we come to power ... we will also ensure punishment of those who report false cases," said the SP leader whose party is in power in Uttar Pradesh.
The brutal gang-rape of a paramedic student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012 had pushed the Parliament to enact a strict anti-rape law.
Meanwhile, slamming Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for his rape remarks, Congress and BJP on Friday said that he should immediately apologise and take back his words.
"Comments by such a senior leader is not only objectionable, but also it is sad and shameful. Mulayam Singh`s remarks show that how much respect he has for women in his heart, and how irresponsible he is towards women`s security," Congress leader Meem Afzal said.
On the SP supremo`s comments that there was a need to change the new anti-rape law so that those misusing it are punished, BJP leader Smriti Irani, "Mulayam Singh is not going to form the government at the Centre at any cost.”
With Agency inputs
