Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur, known to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, has stirred controversy by defending the Yadavs who rule neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and are currently under fire for not just failing to curb incidents of rape and brutal assaults on women in the state, but also for making the most callous comments on the matter.
Mr Gaur, 64, said in a series of shockers today, "No culprit is going to inform us and then commit rape. If that was the case we could have caught them easily. Rape is a social crime and depends on both the man and the woman. It is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Till the time rape is not reported we cannot act on it. So what would Akhilesh and Mulayam do to prevent it."
The comments come from the man who is in charge of law and order in MP, a state that has, for the past decade, had the ignominious distinction of registering the most rape cases in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. In 2012 that number was 3425.
The BJP, which rules Madhya Pradesh and at the Centre now, was quick to distance itself from Mr Gaur's statement. Party leader Lalitha Kumaramangalam said, "Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that he understands the gravity of the problem. He seems to be looking at it from a very orthodox point of view. This is certainly not the BJP stand."
Prahlad Patel, the Lok Sabha MP of the party from Damoh said, "If Babulal Gaur has said this, it's an irresponsible statement."
The Congress picketed Mr Gaur's residence of Babulal Gaur and demanded that state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan "either control or sack" his home minister.
Mr Gaur is in a minority. His party's Uma Bharti, a union minister, today hit out at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who faces widespread outrage and anger ever since two teen girls were gang-raped and found hanging from a tree in Badaun district of his state. There have been more cases of rape and brutality reported every day since and a defensive Akhilesh has alleged biased reportage by the media. (
Uttar Pradesh Only State Where Politicians Protect Rapists: Uma Bharti)
He suggested a "
google search" to determine that rape cases do not just take place in UP. His father and Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh Yadav snapped at reporters saying, "
You do your work, I will do mine".
Ms Bharti said the matter would be discussed in Parliament.