Indian PM Modi: Rape is a matter of shame for the country
LONDON: Rape is rape and should not be politicised, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday, adding that recent sexual assaults were a matter of shame for the nation.
"Rape is rape ... How can we accept this?" Mr Modi said through a translator at a diaspora event, adding that people needed to ask more questions of the perpetrators.
"This is a matter of great concern for the country and these sinners are somebody's sons... The rape of a (daughter) is a matter of worry, a shame for the country."
Mr Modi was greeted in London by hundreds of noisy protesters, demonstrating against a rising tide of sexual violence at home including two particularly brutal rapes.
Holding placards reading "Modi go home" and "we stand against Modi's agenda of hate and greed", the protesters gathered outside Downing Street and parliament as Mr Modi arrived for talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Protests have erupted across India after the rape cases were reported. Police officers and a politician are under investigation in two of the unrelated cases.
In a crime that shocked India, an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir state was kidnapped, drugged and held for several days while she was raped repeatedly and then murdered.
In the other case, a state lawmaker of Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party is accused of raping a teenager. No action was taken against the politician until the girl threatened to set herself on fire earlier this month.
Her father died soon afterwards from injuries he sustained while in police custody.
Nearly 40 per cent of India's rape victims are children and the 40,000 reported rapes in 2016 marked a 60 per cent increase over the level in 2012 - the year that a sickening rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in the capital New Delhi sparked nationwide demonstrations. - REUTERS
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