From 'These Things Happen' to 'Did Nirbhaya Have to Go Out': Shocker Sexist Remarks by Women Leaders

Controversy has brewed after yet another unwitting comment by a politician on rape in India. Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Taneti Vanitha, commenting on a recent gang rape incident at Repalle Railway Station, said the accused did not initially have the ‘intention’ to rape the victim, and that ‘these things happened due to psychological reasons or poverty’.

Opposition leaders have blamed Vanitha for making such comments while being a woman herself. But this is not the first time the YSRCP leader has attracted flak for her statements; the leader had earlier said that it was a ‘mother’s responsibility to protect her child from sexual crimes’.

However, this is not the first time women politicians have made such comments on rape and sexual assault. Taking a look at the past:

‘Rapes Happen Because Men and Women Interact Freely’: Mamata Banerjee (2012)

In 2012, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that rape cases were on the rise in India because men and women were able to mingle more freely. “Earlier, if men and women would hold hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded, but now everything is so open. It’s like an open market with open options,” Mamata Banerjee had said, according to a report by India Today.

Banerjee again made news this year after her comments on the rape and subsequent death of a minor girl in Hanskhali, questioning the circumstances that had led to her demise. “How do you know if she was raped or was pregnant or had a love affair or was sick? Even family knew it was a love affair. If a couple is in a relationship, how can I stop them? This is not UP that I can do that in name of Love Jihad,” Banerjee had said.

A 14-year-old girl was recently allegedly raped by the son of a gramme panchayat member of the Trinamool Congress. The class IX student was reportedly brought to the hospital after being violently ill after returning home from a birthday party. She died in the afternoon and was subjected to a hasty cremation.

‘Why Was Nirbhaya Out So Late at Night?’ Maha State Women’s Commission Member Asha Mirje (2014)

While the horrifying gangrape of Nirbhaya in Delhi had brought a new spotlight towards women’s safety issues in the country, in 2014, then Maharashtra State Women’s Commission member Asha Mirje, blamed the victim for ‘going out so late in the night’.

“Did Nirbhaya really have to go to watch a movie at 11 in the night with her friend? Take the Shakti Mills gang-rape case. Why did the victim go to such an isolated spot at 6 pm?” she said at an NCP women’s wing meet in Nagpur, said a report by DNA India. She also said that Nirbhaya was responsible for her sexual assualt. According to her, a woman’s behaviour and dressing ‘played an important role in rape incidents’.

“We have to be careful. We have to ask ourselves, where am I going, with whom am I going, what am I going for, do I really need to go to that place,” she had said.

‘Nirbhaya Case Blown out of Proportion’: Sheila Dixit (2019)

The December 2012 gangrape case, according to the late Congress leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, was “blown out of proportion” by the media. “There are too many incidents like this happening nowadays,” she had told Mirror Now in an interview in 2019.

Dikshit, who was the Union Territory’s chief minister for 15 years, from 1998 to 2013, said that her government had no participation in the security situation and that “law and order was under the purview of the national government.” The United Progressive Alliance, which included her party, the Congress, was in power at the time of the gangrape.

Dixit had made a contentious remark around rape in 2008 as well when she said ‘a woman working till late in the night needs a male escort to return home. Else she might just get shot’, said a report by the Times of India.

Reacting to the murder of journalist Soumya Viswanathan, Sheila Dikshit had said: “All by herself till 3 am at night in a city where people believe…you know…you should not be so adventurous.”

Lingerie Mannequins Resulting in Sex Crimes Against Women: BJP Corporator Ritu Tawde (2013)

In 2013, then BJP corporator Ritu Tawde had complained about lingerie businesses in Bandra. She claimed the mannequins were viewed as “sex toys,” resulting in sexual crimes against women, and that the city needed to take action against them as part of its women’s safety strategy.

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