A popular Indian spiritual guru sparked a backlash yesterday after saying a 23-year-old student could have averted a murderous gang-rape by begging for mercy from her attackers.
Asharam, known to his followers as “Bapu” or father, told his devotees that blame for the assault on a moving bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16 should not just rest with her attackers.
“This tragedy would not have happened if she had chanted God’s name and fallen at the feet of the attackers. The error was not committed by just one side,” he said in video footage which has been widely circulated on the Internet.
Photo: EPA
The 71-year-old’s remarks — the latest in a series of gaffes by public figures blaming women for the country’s rape epidemic — drew a chorus of condemnation.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the statement was “deeply disturbing and painful.”
“For him to make the statement in relation to a crime which has shocked the conscience of the country is not only unfortunate, but deeply regrettable,” he told reporters.
The Hindu newspaper said it was “a disgrace when a man of religion stoops so low.”
“Asharam deserves to be condemned in the strongest words,” the daily added in an editorial.
The editorial also criticized politicians from the Congress party and the BJP for their sexist commentary on the rape and the need for Indian women to stay home and make traditional choices.
“Their notions of ... an ideal society appear rooted in the very prejudices that have engendered a culture of violence against women, the Delhi incident being its most recent and horrific manifestation,” the newspaper said.
Congress Member of Parliament Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of India’s president, landed himself in hot water last month after comparing women who took part in protests over the gang-rape to patched up second-hand cars.
Five men have been charged with rape and murder in the Dec. 16 attack on the young student. A sixth accused, who is 17, is to be tried in a separate court for juveniles.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS