From Parliament to streets of India, protests erupt
New Delhi: The gang-rape and brutal murder of Hyderabad veterinary doctor witnessed heated discussions in both Houses of Parliament on Monday with members demanding death penalty, public lynching and castration of men convicted of such heinous crimes.
Cutting across party lines, MPs condemned the recent spurt in crime against women and demanded strict laws that punish the guilty within a fixed time-frame. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu even suggested a rethink on allowing convicts in heinous crimes to go in for mercy appeals.
Speaking in the Upper House, Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan said the rapists should be "brought out in public and lynched."
"I think the people now want the government to give a proper answer and a very definite answer. What has happened? How they have tackled it and how far justice has been done to these people," Bachchan said.
"A similar incident happened in Hyderabad a day before the vet was raped. Do you not think the security in-charge should be questioned and they should be asked to give an answer why they were not able to protect that area?"
She further added: "I think the people who have not done their jobs properly, need to be shamed in front of the entire country. These kinds of people (the accused) should be brought out in public and lynched," Jaya said.
DMK's P Wilson said courts should be empowered to surgically and chemically castrate convicted rapists before they are released from jails so as to check repeat offenders.
The cost of such procedure should be recovered from the accused by selling his assets, he said, adding list of sexual offenders should also be made public.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the society will have to tackle this problem at its root and the guilty should be given stringent punishment without any discrimination on the basis of religion or caste.
Mohd. Ali Khan of the Congress and Sanjay Singh of the Aam Adami Party (AAP) demanded that the trial and punishment should be carried out within a fixed time frame.
Khan said such crimes should not be given a religious colour and the accused in the Hyderabad incident belong to four separate religions and not one.
Expressing grief, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said: "We in one voice" condemn such incidents.
Responding to a discussion during Zero Hour in the Lower House, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he was falling short of words to condemn the heinous crime.
TMC's Saugata Roy said the House should take cognisance of this serious incident and urged the Centre to immediately frame laws to make rape punishable by death sentence.
Senior TMC RS member Sukhendu Sekhar Ray urged the Union Home minister Amit Shah to send advisories to states that if the police fail to proceed on such cases then stringent action will be taken. Even the Apex Court has directed in umpteen number of cases to the states that, whenever there is a sexual harassment case, FIR should be lodged. However it was not done in this case, Ray mentioned.
Raising the issue in the Upper House, TMC member Santanu Sen said: "Strong steps must be taken by bringing legislation by setting up fast track courts and awarding exemplary punishment. The punishment should be publicised so that people think twice before committing such a heinous crime."
Sen also emphasised that according to the National Crime Record Bureau report, the crime rate against women are significantly increasing day by day in India. As per the Global Gender Inequality Index, India ranks 127 out of 160 countries.
