‘Sometimes right’

raperally

See, this is what rape culture looks like around the world. But don’t kid yourself it’s any different from a frat party here:

In late May, two girls living in a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh went outside to use the bathroom. That night they were gang-raped, and they were found dead the next day, hanging from a mango tree.

As horrible as the crime is, comments about rape made by politicians in that state and another have spurred further outrage. Babulal Gaur, home minister of the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh, today called rape “a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong.” He also said that “until there’s a complaint, nothing can happen.”

And yet in the case of the two girls, who were from an untouchable caste, a complaint reportedly was made—and nothing happened. Amnesty International says that when one of the girls’ fathers approached police the night the cousins went missing, “the policemen on duty refused to register or investigate the complaint and slapped him instead.” (Three people, all brothers, have reportedly confessed to the rape; five people have been arrested in total, two of whom are police.)

Gaur’s comment about rape “sometimes” being right follows similar comments made by politicians in Uttar Pradesh, where the two cousins were raped. The chief minister there, Akhilesh Yadav, pushed back against journalists who had asked him about the topic: “You’re not facing any danger, are you?” he asked. “Then why are you worried? What’s it to you?” Yadav’s father, also a politician, made headlines when he struck a similar note in April, saying that “boys will be boys.”