Women activists today slammed BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi for her "insensitive" comments on the growing incidents of violence against women in India.
Lekhi had rejected as "fake" the findings of a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of about 550 experts, which found India the world's most dangerous country for women. She had claimed that "far worse" cases were happening abroad and that New York, not New Delhi, was the world's "rape capital".
Woman activist and CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said Lekhi's comments show the "callous mindset" of the BJP.
"As a woman, Meenakshi Lekhi should show little more sensitivity to the very serious insecure environment which most women in India face day in and day out. She may or may not agree with the survey but she cannot question the figures of her own government which shows huge increase in last three years of rape of minor children and women," Karat told PTI.
"And instead of answering this, she is blaming media."
Accusing the BJP of ignoring the increasing violence against women, activist Kavita Krishnan too held Lekhi accountable for the deteriorating situation in the country.
"What is the point in saying that India has been maligned and situations are worst or bad in other countries too. I hold her accountable. She is a representative of the ruling party, her response cannot be like someone is trying to dishonouring the country by pointing out incidents of violence against women," Krishnan said.
Krishnan, however, said she does not hold the survey particularly "reliable", but added that the BJP did not find wrong a survey by the same organisation in 2013.
"Lekhi's own party, BJP, had no trouble in legitimising the same survey during the UPA government when it had called India the 4th most-unsafe country for women in 2013, and at that time the BJP used the survey to gain political points," Krishnan said.
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