BJP MLA says Bilkis Bano convicts have good ‘sanskar’: When politicos made light of rape

In what is sure to only add more fuel to the controversy over the release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, the sitting BJP MLA from Godhra has said they are ‘Brahmins’ and that they have ‘good sanskar’.

The remarks by CK Raulji come in the backdrop of much outrage across India about the release of the convicts who were welcomed with sweets and garlands after walking out of Godhra sub-jail.

As per NDTV, Raulji was part of the Gujarat government panel that unanimously decided to release the rapists.

The decision was taken after one of the convicts approached the Supreme Court seeking remission and the matter was passed on to the state government.

“I don’t know whether they committed any crime or not. But there has to be intention of committing crime,” CK Raulji told a reporter from Mojo Story. “They were Brahmins and Brahmins are known to have good sanskar. It might have been someone’s ill intention to corner and punish them,” added the MLA in the interview, which is circulating on social media.

The convicts, he added, behaved themselves while in jail.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time an Indian politico has made light of rape.

Let’s take a closer look at a few similar instances:

‘When unavoidable, one should enjoy it’

In December 2021, senior Congress leader and former Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly KR Ramesh Kumar, addressing the

Assembly while discussing farm laws, said to the Speaker, “When rape is unavoidable, one should enjoy it”.

The response from others present?

Laughter.

Worse, this isn’t the first time Kumar has made such flippant remarks about rape.

As per India Today, in February 2019, Kumar, the then Speaker, compared himself to a rape survivor.

He made a statement during discussions in the house on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into an audio clip controversy.

Kumar, pointing to repeated references to charges against him, said his situation “was like that of a rape victim, as they too are supposedly questioned about the incident repeatedly.”

‘Should marry each other’

As per News18, Haryana’s former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala came out in support of a bizarre statement by a khap panchayat in 2012 that the marriageable age limit for women should be abolished, and girls should be married off as early as possible to decrease incidents of rape.

“People used to marry their girls to save them from Mughal atrocities and currently a similar situation is arising in the state. I think that’s the reason khap has taken such a decision and I support it,” Chautala said.

‘Boys will be boys’

Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav infamously made this statement in 2014.

Yadavm attempting to defend three men convicted for gang-raping a woman in Badaun by claiming that “boys will be boys, they make mistakes”.

In a Moradabad rally, he had said, “Ladkiyan pehle dosti karti hain. Ladke-ladki mein matbhed ho jata hai. Matbhed hone key baad usey rape ka naam dey deti hain. Ladko sey galti ho jati hai. Kya rape case mein phasi di jayegi? (First girls become friends with boys. Then when they have differences between them, girls level rape charges. Boys commit mistakes. Will they be hanged for rape?).”

‘Will ask my boys to go and rape people’

In 2014, actor and Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Pal, giving a speech in Benga’s Choumaha village, threatened to let loose ‘his boys’ on his opponents.

Pal said, “If anyone from Opposition or their wives and sisters are here, then listen up, if any one of your people touch anyone from TMC I will destroy you, I will not spare them. I will send my boys and they will rape people.”

‘Rapes happen because men and women interact freely’

To be fair, male politicians aren’t the only ones who can make such insensitive statements.

In 2012, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that rape cases in India were on the rise because men and women had the opportunity to interact with each other more freely.

“Earlier, if men and women would hold hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded, but now everything is so open. It’s like an open market with open options,” Mamata Banerjee said.

With inputs from agencies