Social activists have demanded Puducherry Lt Governor, Kiran Bedi’s resignation because of insensitive remarks on the gruesome gangrape and murder of a Dalit girl in Haryana.
While reacting to the Rohtak gangrape and murder of a Dalit girl, Bedi had said that indirectly blamed parents for not protecting their daughters.
She had said that instead of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”, the new slogan for the nation should be “Beti Bachao Apni Apni.”
She had said, “Haryana kind of brutal murder with rape and gang rapes will not go away till parents realise their responsibility of careful and watchful nurturance.”
Slamming Kiran Bedi’s ‘Beti Bachao Apni Apni’ remark, social activist Mariya Alam Umar told ANI, “Such a statement from Kiran Bedi, who was an IPS officer, was no expected. Being a senior post holder, if she gives such statement and slogan, then it doesn’t suit her. Does a political party change a person’s language to this extent that he/she forgets moral principle? She should resign on the ground of morality.”
Bedi’s comments appear to suggest that Haryana’s BJP government had no responsibility towards ensuring women safety. Bedi, famous for her foot-in-mouth comments, had joined BJP just before Delhi assembly elections.
Despite her humiliating defeat, she was later appointed the LG of Puducherry.
Another women rights activist, Heena Jahir, told ANI, “What Kiran Bedi wants to say? Does she want to say that it is not government’s duty to provide protection to women and therefore parents should take care of their children? Will such slogans help protecting the women?”
The decomposed and mutilated body of the 23-year-old Dalit girl, who went missing from Sonipat on 9 May and was gangraped and brutally murdered, was found near the Industrial Model Township in Urban Estate, Rohtak, on 11 May. Stray dogs had bitten off the face and lower portion of her body.
The sheer brutality of the crime, reminiscent of the ‘Nirbhaya’ incident in Delhi which triggered nation-wide outrage, occurred barely a month after the BJP-led Haryana government launched ‘Operation Durga’ to stop harassment of women.
Following the incident, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had expressed deep shock, saying it highlighted the need to revisit the issue of women safety.