In a statement reminiscent of the diktats of khap panchayats, Rajpal Singh Saini, a Bahujan Samaj Party MP, has said mobile phones should not be given to girls. The MP is reported to have made this comment at a function of the Saini Samaj in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday.
Mr. Saini has since denied having made such a remark. He has even denied that the reported comment was made at a function of the Saini Samaj. According to the MP, it was a meeting of the “parivar” (family). Whose parivar , or family, was left unexplained.
The MP said that if girls did not own mobile phones, their work would not be affected.
His reported remark was made in reference to the abduction of a girl of the Saini OBC studying in the high school of a village in Muzaffarnagar district. When he asked her parents whether she possessed a mobile, they said she did.