Indian rape call politician arrested

A leading Indian politician was arrested today after she suggested a rival leader should be raped so she could better understand the plight of sex victims.

Meanwhile protesters burned down the home of Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the chief of the Congress party in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

She was put in custody for 14 days pending investigations for allegedly promoting social enmity, insulting a woman’s modesty and insulting a person of lower caste.

No charges have been filed yet, but the three offences are punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

Ms Joshi’s house in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow was set on fire yesterday, hours after she made a speech criticising state Chief Minister Mayawati, who uses only one name.

After being arrested, Ms Joshi said her comments were taken out of context.

Her speech was about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh and the increasing number of rapes in the state. She cited a few cases in which some women were paid 25,000 rupees (€365) compensation after being raped.

Ms Joshi said simply compensating the women with money was not enough. Women who are raped should “throw the money at Mayawati’s face and tell her ’you should also be raped and I will give you 10 million rupees (€145,000),”’ she said in the speech, broadcast by several television networks.

Today Ms Joshi said she was only trying to “expose a chief minister who has no sympathy for women.”

“I regret what I said in a fit of anger. If it is being misconstrued, if it’s being misinterpreted, it is being taken out of context, then I regret it,” she said.

“I am myself a woman and I should not have spoken these words ... I really apologise,” she said.

Mayawati appealed to her supporters to maintain peace, saying Joshi’s “extremely objectionable and vulgar language” should not be used as a pretext for violence.