Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Thursday joined the league of ignorant and insensitive politicians who resort to victim-blaming and moral policing instead of cracking the whip on the perpetrators of the crime.
also read
A day after the alleged gang rape of a girl student was reported from Mysuru triggering massive outrage across the state, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra turned an apologist and stated that the couple should not have visited the "deserted" place in the dark.
"It was a deserted place. First of all, they should not have gone there at night. We cannot stop anyone from going anywhere. People don't go there as it is deserted, but these two people have gone there. Now, people have blamed the police for not patrolling the area. I will look unto these lapses," said Jnanendra, the BJP MLA from Thirthahalli, a first-time minister who was recently inducted into the Bommai cabinet.
While the accused remain at large, Mysureans are attributing the rise in the crime rate in the city to a failing policing system.
According to police, the gang-rape victim and her male friend were riding on a motorbike in Lalithadripura layout near the foothills of Chamundee hills on Tuesday evening around 7.30 pm, when they were waylaid and attacked by six men. Both victims are undergoing treatment in a hospital and are said to be out of danger.
Meanwhile, the Home Minister, in his zeal to counter the Congress leaders staging protests in Mysuru and Bengaluru, ended up making a mockery of himself by equating a heinous crime like gang-rape to the verbal attack of his political opponents.
"The rape has taken place there (Mysuru). But Congress is trying to rape me, the home minister, here. They are trying to get political mileage out of this incident. This is an inhuman act. We have to worry about how to prevent such incidents in future and how must our police force work," said Jnanendra.
KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar said the Congress Party was worried about the image of Karnataka. "These people (BJP) will be here today and gone tomorrow. Even the people know it. We don't trust this government. So, as the Opposition party, we have constituted a fact-finding committee headed by V.S Ugrappa and comprising members H.M. Revanna, Manjula Manasa, Manjula Naidu, Mallajamma, Tanveer Sait to visit Mysuru," said Shivakumar, who charged that the government had failed as no arrests had been made 48 hours after the incident.
Mocking the home minister for his remarks, Shivakumar said, "The Home Minister has taken the word "rape" very lightly. He claims the Congressmen are trying to rape the home minister of the state and I demand the DGP file an FIR under IPC section 376 against all the Congressmen who are trying to rape and immediately arrest them."
