Hamirpur: In a shocking sexist comment, a ruling Samajwadi Party(SP) MLA in Uttar Pradesh today said women were more responsible for rapes, drawing strong condemnation from opposition parties.
"...It is wrong to say that women are less guilty, they are more responsible for rapes," Shiv Charan Prajapati, MLA from Hamirpur, said at a women's meet here.
Prajapati said women were also no less responsible for crimes like abortion and dowry harassment.
He also said no government can check incidents like rapes. "Only society can do it," he added.
When UP Women's Commission Chairperson Zarina Usmani, who was presiding over the meeting, objected to his remarks, the MLA said, "If I have said something wrong, I seek pardon."
Incidentally, the MLA's comments came on a day when three cases of rape involving a five-year-old in Firozabad and two teenaged sisters in Badaun were reported today.
There was, however, no immediate reaction to the SP MLA's remarks from his party.
Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh slammed Prajapati, asking how the SP MLA could make such insensitive comments.
BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur said lawmakers should execise caution while making comments failing which it will encourage the wrongdoers.
The trend of blaming women for crimes against them is, however, not new to SP leaders.
In the past, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and other veteran leaders of his party have publicly made objectionable remarks relating to violence against women.
Mulayam had courted controversy last year when, while addressing a rally in Moradabad, he had said, "Ladke, ladke hain. Galti ho jati hai (Boys are boys. Mistakes do happen sometimes)."
"Death penalty for rape is unfair...Will change rape laws when we come to power," he had said.
His reference was to a legislation invoked by a Mumbai court to sentence three repeat rape offenders to death.
The SP chief had also said Uttar Pradesh has the lowest number of rape cases in the country despite a population of 21 crore, drawing flak from the opposition which said the remark exposed the "insensitivity" of the SP government.
When the nation was crying foul over the alleged rape and murder of Badaun sisters, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav while answering a women journalist's question shot back at her saying, "Aapko toh khatra nahin hua?(Did anything happen to you)".
The chief minister had also said, "It's Google era. If you go online and check, you will see where else such incidents occur. Incidents of UP are publicised more. Such incidents do not happen here alone..."
