‘What can opposition do if someone drags and rapes you’

“This kind of statement makes people lose their respect for elected representatives”. It is on record what politicians like SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav or recently Karnataka Home Minister KJ George and others have irresponsibly said on rape cases as if woman is at fault.

Former Chief Minister and Opposition BJP leader in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar said, “If the statement is actually like that, it is not in a good taste”.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa stoked a controversy on Saturday when he reacted to a woman journalist’s question by saying, “You are a woman, if someone here drags and rapes you, what can the opposition (leaders) do?” On October 16, interacting with a female journalist, the former deputy Chief Minister reportedly said that ‘what can we do, if someone rapes you?’

Later, Eshwarappa clarified his statement and said he was “surprised” by the way media is depicting what he has said.

Later, in an attempt to control the damage, Eshwarappa claimed that his statement had been blown out of proporation to “create confusion”.

A group of journalists in Bengaluru submitted a memorandum to chief minister Siddaramaiah seeking action against Eshwarappa.

Mr Eshwarappa’s earlier comment on the subject had also landed him in a controversy when he had asked if Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister KJ George will have “feelings” for victims of sexual assault only if their daughters were “raped”. “His views are anti-women and unacceptable”, said, Dr Vasundara Bhoopathi, president of Karnataka Women Writers’ Organisation. “We condemn the derogative statement made by Eshwarappa to a lady journalist”, the Bangalore Reporters Guild said in a statement.

The BJP leader made the remarks while replying to a Kannada television news channel reporter’s question on the BJP being passive to increasing law and order problems and farmers’ suicides in the State.