Vice president / Brought a bill after Nirbhaya, what happened? Vice Prez on new laws on rape

New legislations will not bring down the number of rapes and sexual assaults in the country, vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday as he cited the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case.

“Bringing new laws is no solution. I am not against bringing any new law or bill. We brought a bill after Nirbhaya. What happened? Was the problem solved?” Venkaiah Naidu asked.

“So, I always feel that what is required is not a bill rather a political will and administrative skill to kill the social evils of the society and change in the mindset is the need of the hour and that we should go back to the roots and culture,” he said while speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Symbiosis International, a deemed university, in Pune.

Venkaiah Naidu also pulled up Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remark that India has become the rape capital of the world. He, however, did not name the Congress lawmaker.

“Bad name is coming to India. Somebody said India is becoming capital of so and so, I don’t want to get into that. We should never denigrate our country and we should also not get into politics in such matters of atrocities,” Naidu said at the event where he was invited as the chief guest.

Rahul Gandhi had made the comment on Saturday while addressing a meeting of his party workers in Sulthan Bathery in his constituency Wayanad in Kerala.

The Congress leader had come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his continued silence over the Unnao rape case in which a BJP legislator of Uttar Pradesh was allegedly involved.

“India is known as the rape capital of the world. Foreign nations are asking a question of why India is unable to look after its daughters and sisters. A BJP legislator in Uttar Pradesh is involved in the rape of a woman and the Prime Minister did not say a single word about this,” he said.

In his speech in Pune, Naidu also referred to the rape and murder of a veterinary doctor in Telangana and murder of another woman in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

The 24-year-old Unnao woman was set on fire by five men, including two of her alleged rapists, on Thursday morning. She died after a cardiac arrest on Friday night.

Her death came days after the gang-rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Hyderabad that sparked national outrage. The four men accused of raping the Hyderabad vet were killed in an encounter on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Friday.

“In Indian tradition, we treat women as mother and sister, but what has happened in the recent days, in certain parts is really a shame and challenge for all of us,” Venkaiah Naidu said.

“We should collectively create psychology and a mindset in the society which condemn and denounce such bad practices. Promoting better practices is the need of the hour and which is why I feel that in every educational institute, with education, we should also educate children about our culture. This should be the responsibility of the teachers,” he said.