NEW DELHI, Aug 23- India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, who was intensely criticised for referring to the Dec 16 gangrape incident, that shocked the nation, as a “small” incident, clarified that he was not referring to any particular incident.
“Regret that my words were construed as insensitive,” he said.The minister was reported to have made the remark at the National Conference of State Tourism Ministers on Thursday.He was quoted as saying that “A law and order problem, one small incident of rape in Delhi advertised world over is enough to cost us millions of dollars in terms of lower tourism.”
The word “small” was amended from the official government website that published his speech.On Dec 16, 2012, a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was beaten and
gang raped by six people in a private bus in which she was travelling with a male friend. She died two weeks later. The minister’s remark created an outrage in the media and social media sites.
Among others, the rape victims’s father was quoted by media as saying that he was disappointed by the minister’s remark.He reportedly termed the remark as “irresponsible” and said that the comment had deeply disappointed him.
“@arunjaitley shame! No rape is ‘small’; rapes aren’t ‘advertised’ but reported, life lost worth more than crores (million)!,” a prominent women’s rights activist in India, Kavita Krishnan said in her micro blogging site twitter.
She also went on and tweeted,”@arunjaitley No rape is ‘small’, each rape is shameful coz it violates women’s rights not coz it affects tourism!”Official statistics say about 25,000 rapes are committed every year in India, a nation of 1.2 billion people, while reports say that every 22 minutes a rape happens in India, but underreporting of attacks means the frequency is likely much higher.
– BERNAMA
