Mumbai:
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today said an incident such as the recent gang-rape in Delhi would not happen in his state, because police there had been asked to show zero tolerance to offences against women.
"Even if a single molestation case is filed and policeman doesn't take action, he has to go home," said Mr Parrikar, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, at the institute's alumni meet in Mumbai.
Along with Mr Parrikar, fellow IITians Shailesh Gandhi and Sudheendra Kulkarni, and adman Gerson De Cunha spoke at a panel discussion on the topic "channelising anger".
Mr Parrikar said the people were angry, but "I am not because, if I get angry, then I will burn myself (out). Only getting angry is no solution, we should introspect".
Referring to the Delhi incident, he said if the society was to be blamed then the police were blameworthy too. "Why didn't the policemen not think of the girl as their own sister?" he asked.
The anger should be directed "towards yourself", the BJP leader said, adding that "today our patriotism ends after India wins the cricket match".
RTI activist and former Central Information Commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi said, "Government is not designed to deliver anything, which is pathetic. Thirty per cent of the corruption happens by saying "the file is lost".
"Some promises in the RTI Act are not kept, and neither citizens nor media are asking questions about them," he said.
"There are human resources (HR) departments in private companies, but not in the government. Government does not know how to work with people, punish people and reward people," Mr Gandhi said.
BJP ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni said there was anger in the country, and an "outcry".
"There is pain and shame in the entire society...like never before the society is shaken by crime against women and children. The challenge of combating social crime and the sexual crime is the responsibility of both, society and government," Mr Kulkarni said.
He also said when he was jailed (in cash-for-votes case) he was angry not because he was sent to the jail, but because of the condition of the criminal justice system, in which hundreds of under-trial languish in the jail for five to ten years.
"If we are angry, we must also act, and by acting we must also introspect. My experience tells me -- don't depend upon the government to bring about the change, the time has come for all of us to work together," he added.
Adman de Cunha said the "the girl's sacrifice was for the future, and we should ensure that it was not in vain".