Jaitley faces harsh criticism over "small incident" remark

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley found himself at the wrong end of the social media stick following his comment about the December gang rape and murder in Delhi last year.

 

Speaking at the annual state tourism ministers' conference on Thursday , Jaitley said that "one small incident" of rape was enough to cost India billions of dollars in terms of global tourism, referring to multiple travel advisories warning women against traveling in India that were issued by a number of countries.

 

The insensitive comment, predictably, sparked massive outrage.

 

“ When they wanted, they used Nirbhaya's name for political purposes but now that they are in power, they call it small,” said the mother of the victim of the Delhi gang rape.

Many took to the microblogging website Twitter to express their outrage. #BigMinisterSmallRape and #RapeSmall4BJP soon began to trend, voicing the anger of the public against the callous remark.

"It is a shameful as well as idiotic statement,” Congress leader Shobha Oza said. “Mr. Jaitley should in fact apologise to the entire female fraternity of this country. Where he says that Nirbhaya was a small case, the country lost revenue, he should be in fact worried about the rape cases which are on a high."

 

Mahila Congress workers, too, staged a protest Friday in New Delhi against Jaitley’s remark. Demanding an apology, they claimed the remark was a direct insult to the women of India.

 

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha, tweeted the following:

Arun Jaitley subsequently issued a clarification over the remark yesterday, saying that the words he used were construed as insensitive, which was never his intention, adding that he is very sensitive to these issues.