’Small incident of rape’: Finance minister Arun Jaitley clarifies after uproar over rema

TNN

New Delhi, Aug 22, 2014 : Finance minister Arun Jaitley, on Friday, clarified that his comment on how "one incident like the Nirbhaya gang rape had cost the country millions of dollars", as something that has been misunderstood.

 

"One small incident of rape in Delhi — advertised world-over is enough to cost us billions of dollars in terms of lower tourism," Jaitley had said while addressing a conference of state tourism ministers on Thursday.

 

 

However, the finance minister clarified saying that his earlier comment was being misconstrued as being insensitive. "I regret that some word that I used was construed as insensitive, that was never my intention. I have always been very outspoken about issues relating to crime against women. I am very sensitive to these issues myself," he said.

 

Jaitley also added that, "I had spoken at length as to factors which hurt tourism in India; one of factors I mentioned was crime against women."

 

Shobha Oza, Congress’s spokeswoman, termed Jaitley’s comment "horrendous" and said that the minister must apologize to the women of the nation.

 

The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi in 2012 caused massive uproar in the country, with thousands rallying in support of the girl. The gruesome incident also raised damning questions about the lack of safety measures in cities such as the national capital where cases of violence against women has been rising ominously. The debate also led to positive administrative outcome with the Nirbhaya Act being implemented.

 

The first judgment under the act was delivered in March 2014.