Crimes against women will not go unpunished, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday in comments that are being seen as his first public response to the gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old child in Jammu and Kasmhir’s Kathua, and a teenager’s allegation that a lawmaker of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had raped her in Uttar Pardesh’s Unnao.
“The incidents that we have seen in the last few days, they challenge the idea of social justice. In the last two days, the incidents which are being talked about certainly doesn’t behove any civilized country. It is shameful, “ the prime minister said a function to inaugurate a memorial for BR Ambedkar, the architect of India’s constitution.
Stating that Indians are ashamed of such incidents, he said they are an insult to sacrifices of Army jawans who have laid down their lives for the country.
“In any corner of the country, in any state, such incidents shake our human sensibilities. I want to assure that no culprit will be spared. There will be justice and there will be full justice,” he promised.
“I want to assure the country that the Government of India will do everything possible bring these culprits to justice,” he said.
Modi made the comments even as demonstrations are planned across India to protest the rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl in Kathua . She was tortured and killed allegedly because the accused wanted to scare away members of her nomadic Muslim Bakarwal community.
His comments are also being seen as a reference to Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the legislator who was on Friday detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with charges that he raped a 17-year-old girl in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh.
Modi said Indians have to come together to stop the “internal evils of our society.”
“They, who commit crimes against our mothers and sisters, are also sons of a mother. And that’s why, (developing) this social sensibilities are our collective responsibility. We have to fight together against these social ills and bring the culprits to justice,” the prime minister said. (HT)
