New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh home minister T. Vanitha’s controversial statements in the past week on sexual crimes against women and children have been criticised summarily by opposition politicians and others.
After an alleged gang-rape of a pregnant woman on May 1, by three men at Repalle railway station, the home minister said the accused had no intention to rape the woman, but had wanted to rob her husband of money. The survivor and her husband had said that railway police were not available when the crime took place, according to reports.
“They (accused) were drunk and when they were beating up her husband, the woman tried to protect him. In the process, the three assailants pushed her away and tied up and…some things happened in an unexpected manner,” the home minister told reporters.
The minister also blamed “psychological situation” and “poverty” and said that shortage of police personnel was unrelated to this crime.
The remarks came a week after the minister appeared to blame mothers whose children had suffered sexual assault. The Quint has reported that this was in connection with an incident of child sexual abuse where a girl had been sexually assaulted by a neighbour.
“Without mothers fulfilling their responsibility properly, it is not right to blame anyone, including police or the government, for such acts (referring to sexual assault),” Vanitha had said.
Vanitha said that in such incidents, the onus of protecting children from sexual abuse is more on the mother than the father, The Quint report said.
“Being a woman home minister, how could you make such reckless comments? The government’s response to the law and order situation is bewildering,” Bharatiya Janata Party state general secretary S. Vishnuvardhan Reddy said.
“If mothers are responsible for the child’s conduct, is Y.S. Vijayamma (chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s mother) not responsible for Jagan being in jail for 16 months in 14 cases,” Telugu Desam Party women’s wing chairperson V. Anitha said.
Jagan, on Thursday, claimed that those involved in sexual assault cases belonged only to the Telugu Desam Party.
(With PTI inputs)