Not trivialising any incident: Jaitley on Dec 16 rape comments

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today regretted that his apparent comments on the December 16 gangrape have been construed as insensitive and said he had no intention of trivialising the incident.

"I regret that the statement has been construed or some word that I have used have been construed as insensitive. That was never my intention," he said.

The minister was referring to his remarks made yesterday at the annual state tourism ministers' conference that "one small incident" of rape in Delhi advertised world over is enough to cost India millions of dollars in terms of global tourism.

Jaitley said he has always been outspoken on issues relating to crimes, particularly those against women.

"I am very sensitive to these issues myself and there is no question of trivialising any crime or any particular incident. I had not referred to any particular incident," he said.

The minister said he had spoken "in general" on how crime can hurt tourism and the image of crime against women itself dissuades tourists from coming to India.