Manohar Lal Khattar says women cry rape to get back to boyfriends 

Manohar Lal Khattar.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Saturday, said women file rape cases to get back to their lovers when their relationship doesn’t work out. His remark invoked sharp reactions from opposition parties.

Speaking at a function in Kalka town in Haryana’s Panchkula district, Khattar said, “The incidents of rape have not increased, rapes took place in the past and even today as well, the concern has now risen. The biggest concern is that in these incidents of rape and eve-teasing … 80 per cent to 90 per cent (of these cases) take place among those who know each other. … they roam around together for a long time, one day there’s an argument and an FIR is lodged that he has raped me.”

The opposition parties slammed Khattar over his remark and said his party, the Bhartiya Janata Party, has an “anti-women mindset”. They have demanded an apology from the Haryana chief minister.

While demanding an apology from Khattar, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewla tweeted the following:

Misogyny is the buzzword for BJP.

BJP leaders & Haryana CM Khattarji’s ‘Talibani thought process’ exposed again by his diparaging remarks.

Are 80% rape cases false?
If boys-girls meet, does it lead to rapes as Khattarji says?

Apolgize to India’s daughters.#MahilaVirodhiBJP pic.twitter.com/j9kiii5UxQ

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) November 18, 2018

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has also criticized Khattar. Tweeting in Hindi, he said: "There is anger among women on Khattar's statement. Women say that when a chief minister can make such comments against them, how can women be safe in his state.”

खट्टर साहिब के इस बयान से हरियाणा की महिलाओं में ख़ासा रोष है। महिलाओं का कहना है की जो मुख्यमंत्री महिलाओं के ख़िलाफ़ इस तरह के बयान देते हैं, उनके राज्य में महिलायें कैसे सुरक्षित हो सकती हैं। https://t.co/Il6Fwgf1xj

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 18, 2018

However, Khattar has denied the allegation that he said rapes happen “due to consent”. Attempting to clarify his remark, he said, “I never said ‘consent’, what I said was ‘between known (people)’. And this is not something that I am saying, this has come out of investigations. This should be dealt with at social level, and no politics should be done.”

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