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25 year old Russian woman on a business trip to Goa was allegedly raped by a Goa politician, John Fernandes. You know the rest of the drill – police, medical reports, witness, statement, retraction of statement, judicial inquiry, political blame game and no justice.
Matter reached parliament, there entered in the scene Shantaram Naik, Member of Parliament, with his mindless thoughtless statement about rape and rape victims. I would just quote him and save myself the trouble of finding more angry words to express my angst
“Rape is a heinous crime but an alleged rape of a lady who moves with strangers for days together even beyond the middle of the night is to be treated on different footings,” said Naik.
Not only did he put the onus of safety on women but also implied that women on their first dates with that random guy they met at the cafe or bar in all probability will be raped. Naik also seems to have a problem with the media whining about such a trivial matter as rape while so many wonderful things are there in Goa.
“If we go by electronic media coverage of recent times, it appears that nothing happens except incidents of rape (in Goa),” he said.
Thankfully today in the Parliament we have many strong iconic women of substance who strongly condemn such statement. MPs like Brinda Karat, Najma Heptulla, Maya Singh, Jaya Bacchan and Ravi Shankar Prasad have strongly criticized the above statement.
In a related radio program on Radio Meow some people said while the statement is outright unfair and derogatory towards women, women should also be careful of what they are doing, with who and what time of the night, that they should not take calculated risk.
‘Calculated risk’ – what does that mean? If I am on a jeep safari in a forest and I suddenly decide to jump out of the jeep and land right in the middle of a tiger family I am taking risk. I get that. But if I decide to go pub hopping with a bunch of guys I just met in my favorite bar, and I am slim and sexy and wearing a short dress, am I taking a risk? Why, because men are animals with no control over their hunting instincts and are not worthy of trust?
What do you think? Go ahead take the Bell Bajao Poll. (At the right side bottom of this page)



I have never heard/read any word like forced sex(rape) in the animal world. In animal kingdom the male species prove themselves “the fittest” by wining over their companions.Then they get the priviledge of mating their female counterparts. They never do any forceful act. Then why do we call agile men animals. It is like looking down on animals.
Rapists and their supporters donot belong to the civilized/uncivilized world we have a huge task ahead … we have to catagorise them.
As for women’s safety I donot think their dressing or going out with guys is the problem. The problem surfaces when a girl come in contact with one of these uncatagorized species.
Very well said Piali, this un natural act of forced sex is only seen amongst human, in that sense animals are far superior than rapists.
[...] Via Bell Bajao [...]
If the politician really wanted to have sex with the Russian girl, he should have had the ability to impress her enough to want to go to bed with him. Raping is not at all justified. It makes a man an animal.
Piali has said it!
I tried to post a long, thoughtful comment, but the blog insists that it “seems a bit spammy”. Might want to adjust the filters.
Piali is wrong; rape is quite common in the animal kingdom. And Sanjukta and Naik are both presenting a false dichotomy. The correct answer to the poll is both A and B — she’s inviting trouble, AND nothing justifies rape!
of course it’s a risk. every decision we make involves risk in some way. going on a safari is taking a risk, whether or not you decide to play with the tigers.
if a girl decides to go binge drinking with a group of men she doesn’t know, yes, she runs the risk of something bad happening. should the world be that way? of course not. is it her fault if something bad happens? of course not. but that doesn’t mean she didn’t put herself into a risky situation, since those bad things would’ve been a lot less likely to happen had she not put herself in said situation.
in the real world, bad things happen. you can make efforts to avoid them.
also:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Coercive_sex
She is taking a risk.
That doesn’t make it okay for someone to rape her.