Asaram Bapu does a U-turn, says how can he blame the gang-rape victim

Zeenews Bureau Mumbai: In a dramatic U-turn, Asaram Bapu said on Tuesday that he had not made any insensitive comments about the Delhi gang-rape victim and said that he would apologise if he was at fault. Reports had earlier quoted the self-proclaimed godman as saying, “Only 5-6 people are not the culprits. The victim daughter is as guilty as her rapists... She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop... This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don`t think so.” Asaram had said that the Delhi braveheart must share the blame for the gang-rape. He had even said that the 23-year-old paramedic could have begged before the rapists to leave her. But, talking to Times Now today Asaram Babu retracted from his statement and tried to portray that he was misquoted. “I talked about the girl very lovingly. How can I be so cruel and say that the girl was to be blamed. She is the victim,” he said. The self-proclaimed godman also told the TV channel that when he loved even a snake how could he say anything untoward about the media? “I can never say that media barks,” he said. Earlier today, Asaram Bapu had called those criticising him as “barking dogs”. Addressing his supporters, an unapologetic Asaram had described himself as elephant and said, “First one dog started barking. Then another dog started barking. And then all dogs started barking. If the elephant runs after dogs, then their (dogs) value increases and the elephant’s decreases. Why should I run after them?”

He had also blamed the critics and media for misconstruing his previous remarks. The godman had further said that he is against harsher punishments for the accused as the law could be misutilised.