Modi talks of India’s sex assault shame
PRIME minister Narendra Modi said in his first speech marking India’s independence from colonial rule 67 years ago that the country had been shamed by rapes and attacks on women.
Mr Modi, a Hindu nationalist, called on parents to treat their sons and daughters equally.
“The law will do its job and do it strictly but as a society every parent also has a responsibility to teach their sons the difference between right and wrong,” Mr Modi said.
He addressed the nation dressed in a white kurta tunic and saffron turban from the Red Fort, the 17th century fortress that was once home to India’s medieval Mughal rulers, who were Muslims.
“Today, when we hear news reports of rapes, our heads hang in shame,” he added, addressing a growing anger over persistent violence against women.
A fatal gang rape on a bus in the Indian capital, New Dehli, in December 2012 enraged a country long inured to sexual violence against women.
Amid scores of public protests, new and tougher legislation was enacted doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalising voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women.
Mr Modi called on members of parliament to ensure separate toilets were built for girls and women. A lack of private toilets in schools has been cited as a reason for girls dropping out of education. Women in rural India often must use fields as toilets where they are often harassed and sometimes attacked.
“Can’t we just make arrangements for toilets for the dignity of our mothers and sisters?” Mr Modi asked.
The 63-year-old PM, a newcomer to central government after running the industrialised western state of Gujarat for more than 13 years, made the hour-long speech without a prepared text.
He did not speak from behind a bullet-proof screen, the first Indian PM to do so in almost 30 years..
Mr Modi’s
Bharatiya
Janata Party swept to power in May in the biggest electoral upset in three decades. His main electoral plank had been to boost an economy that had slowed to 5 per cent growth in the past two years. He promised to wipe out corruption, create more jobs and control soaring inflation.
While he announced no specific policies yesterday, he again vowed to work to pull millions of Indians out of poverty, calling himself India’s “prime servant” and not prime minister.
He said his goal was to “eradicate” poverty in India, where hundreds of millions live on less than a pound a day.
Mr Modi urged global investors to set up their factories in India. “As I say to the world – ‘Come, Make in India’,” he said.
He said his government would replace the Planning Commission, which laid out the framework for India’s socialiststyle economy for decades, with a modern institution.
Since he came to power, Mr Modi has focused on bringing to order India’s unruly state apparatus. He has beefed up the PM’s office, ordered bureaucrats to get to work on time and – in a law passed this week – restricted the power of judges to appoint each other. He remains a controversial figure, however, accused of condoning a massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 in which about 2,000 people died.