Union Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday came under attack over his “small rape incident” remark even though the senior BJP leader asserted that he had not referred to any particular case and that he had no intention of trivialising any incident.
“I regret that my speech [at a tourism function] has been construed or some word that I have used has been construed as insensitive. There is no question of trivialising any incident. That was never my intention,” he said in a clarification.
His remarks drew flak from the victim’s parents. “During elections they had used Nirbhaya’s name for political gains and after now they call it a small incident,” her mother said. Nirbhaya’s father said no rape was “small” and each rape incident was shameful for a country.
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As Jaitley’s remark sparked protests, the Press Information Bureau, which on its website had put out the text of Jaitley’s speech deleted the word “small”.
His speech now reads, “One incident of rape in Delhi was enough to cost millions of dollars in terms of lower number of tourists...”