B'luru molestation incident and its after-effects

As the nation expresses outrage over the mass molestation incident that took place in India's IT capital Bengaluru on New Year's eve, some of our representatives triggered controversy with their comments.

Bengaluru was shamed when hooligans virtually took over the most prominent streets in the city where restaurants and hotels had stayed open till past midnight on December 31 and started molesting and groping women.

The distraught women were virtually held captive as the mobs went berserk. It was reported that no one came to their rescue despite the fact that the state government had deployed almost 1,500 policemen in the area apprehending incidents of violence.

However, with cops standing as mute spectators to the sexual abuse, the crowd behaved in an even more boorish manner. Even as women rushed towards cops and tried to seek safety, the hooligans still chased them down and tried to drag them away.

Let us look at some of the comments made about the heinous incident.

"Such incidents do happen on New Year day and on Christmas. We take a lot of precautions," said Karnataka's Home Minister G. Parameshwara.

"It's unfortunate, things like this has happened earlier also. We had installed more than 25 CCTVs, will examine. Bengaluru is safe, just an incident like this does not mean it is not safe. All our officers are working to nab the culprit. Efforts are on to see that such incidents are not repeated again. Such incidents do happen on New Year day and on Christmas. We take a lot of precautions," he added.

Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi went one step further and said, "In this modern era, more a girl exposes the more she will be called fashionable. I believe if my daughter or sister is celebrating 31st night after sunset and she doesn't have her father or husband with her and is with other men, then she can't be treated with respect."

Azmi further said that the women need to be cautious and should take care of their own security.

"The women from rich family also used to cover themselves before appearing before men, that is our nation's culture. In western culture, the parents don't care about their girl but we do care. We should take precaution about our girls' security so that she doesn't get involved in some wrongdoings. We shouldn't give chance to anyone," Azmi added.

However, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has issued summons to both Parameshwara and Azmi for their 'disgusting' assertions.

NCW chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said, "Politicising any issue leads to issue being covered up and politics becomes more important. It does not matter whether Abu Azmi belongs to one particular party or other party. To be brutally frank, there are men across all parties who make such disgusting statements and they are all to be condemned equally. In this case, it is Abu Azmi and Karnataka Home Minister."

"When you have a Home Minister, who makes such irresponsible statements and doesn't want to take any sort of responsibility for it and doesn't even seem to care and is offending millions of women across the country then what do you expect the police to do. They are going to take cover behind the Home Minister and say even the Home Minister has said that nothing is going to happen," she said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh voiced his support for the cause and asked the Karnataka Government to take this matter seriously.

"Protecting the modesty of women is duty of state government and any state government must take it seriously," he said.