Taslima Nasreen calls Delhi bus masturbation incident 'victimless crime', gets slammed on social media

A day after a Delhi University student lodged a case against a man for allegedly molesting her onboard a bus, author Taslima Nasreen called the public masturbation incident a “victimless crime”. She tweeted:

A man in a crowded Delhi bus masturbated. It should not be considered a big crime in the era of rape culture. Men should rather masturbate, than rape and murder. Is masturbating in public a crime? Well it is a victim-less crime.

— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) February 12, 2018

The student, who had recorded the incident on camera, accused the man sitting next to her of masturbating and of repeatedly trying to touch her waist. The incident occurred on 7 February in a DTC bus on the route between Vasant Vihar and IIT Gate, according to News18. The student claimed that she raised an alarm and told her co-passengers that the man was masturbating but, no one understood what she was saying, reported The Indian Express. She further said that the ordeal went on for about 10 minutes but the 30-odd other passengers on the bus allegedly ignored the incident, Hindustan Times reported. Nasreen’s tweet garnered reactions on social media. 

But one as to agree the degree of discomfort caused to the person next to him. How is it victimless if there's a girl he's looking at. Pretty sure he wouldn't do that if there was a guy next to him. It's not like he's looking at some magazine. He's looking at her.

— 11th Place FC! (@Kanteism) February 13, 2018

Are victims made only out of rapes and violence? I don't think so. Public Masturbation in isolation might not be criminal. But it's mostly directed towards someone or even a group of people. Which is definitely a crime with a victim.

— Dev Kulkarni (@DevK93) February 12, 2018

Madam, what about the girl who was subjected the trauma of finding a person sitting near to her doing this? I simply cannot agree your point of view... This is ridiculous

— Nishand Venugopal (@nvgpal79) February 13, 2018