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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?

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