Arun Jaitley should apologise to female fraternity: Shobha Oza

Congress leader Shobha Oza said on Friday that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should apologise to the entire female fraternity of this country for his remark on women.

Jaitley, while addressing a conference of state tourism ministers on Thursday, had said, "One small incident of rape in Delhi advertised world-over is enough to cost us billions of dollars in terms of lower tourism."

Oza told ANI, "It is a shameful as well as idiotic statement. Mr. Jaitley should in fact apologise to the entire female fraternity of this country. Where he says that Nirbhaya was a small case, the country lost revenue, he should be in fact worried about the rape cases which are on a high."

"India is on the verge of being declared as the rape capital of the universe and at that time he gives such a shameful statement which is really horrendous and he should apologise", she added.

Condemning the statement, National Commission for Women (NCW) member Nirmala Samant also told ANI, "This has been brought to my notice by the media reports. If it is the reality then it is a very shocking and surprising thing which should not have been spoken like this. Connecting rape incidence into small and big and also connecting the financial loss of tourism with the incidents like this. It needs to be condemned at all levels".

Jaitley, however, clarified his remarks today by saying that they had been misconstrued.

"There is a controversy about what I had said in my speech yesterday. However, I had strongly emphasized against crime against women in India, and that how it is one of the factors that affects the whole country. I regret that my speech was misconstrued in certain sections, or some words that I used were construed as insensitive, but that was not my intention," Jaitley told ANI.