BJP’s Kirron Kher on defensive over advice to gang rape victim

Bollywood actress and Chandigarh’s BJP MP Kirron Kher was on the defensive on Thursday after she stirred a controversy by giving unsolicited advice to a young woman who was gang raped earlier this month here by an auto-rickshaw driver and his two accomplices.

Kher had on Wednesday said the victim should have been more cautious and not boarded the auto-rickshaw in which three men were already sitting, reports IANS.

Facing criticism from several quarters, the Lok Sabha member on Thursday sought to clarify her statement, saying it was “only in the context of certain precautions” that women should take and that it was “not intended to blame the victim or shaming her”.

“I strongly believe that women safety is an enduring and continuous process in our country. Yesterday, my statement... was taken out of context, selectively reported, and gravely politicised -- all of which distracted from the real message I wanted to send out to the girls, as a woman, as a mother, and as their representative in the Parliament,” Kher tweeted on Thursday.

“I just said that the world is a bad place. We all, especially ladies, have to take precautions. As a mother, I am saying this that we need to take care,” she said.

She said that if the victim had called up the police control room, police would have taken her and dropped her safely to her home.

Kher said that she wanted to put “untampered, the things I really wished to convey”.

“Chandigarh has a facility for all women who are out late in the night, and cannot find a transport. If a woman finds herself in this position, she can dial 100 and a PCR van is sent to pick her up. As a woman MP, I am proud that my constituency offers this reliability to our girls.

“I did not say it was the victim’s fault... I said it is terribly sad what happened to her, and I wish she had availed the PCR facility instead,” Kher said.

Kher had on Wednesday said the victim should have been more cautious and not boarded the auto-rickshaw in which three men were already sitting.