Geneva/New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that there is not a single person who is not outraged by the rape-murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital, and that ensuring the safety and security of women is a big issue.
During an interaction with the Indian community in Geneva, the EAM answering a question on the incidents of rape and specifically on the RK Kar Hospital rape-murder of a young doctor, said:
“I don’t think there can be a single person who is not outraged by what happened, and you can see that on the street,” referring to the ongoing protests in Kolkata by doctors and the general public venting their anger over the August 9 incident and the alleged attempts at fudging evidence by the hospital administration.
“The fact is women’s safety, crimes against women, it is an issue in our country. It may be an issue in other countries as well, but that doesn’t mitigate it enough. I am reminded in a way of something once the PM said, he said it from the Red Fort; he said that all of us say things to our daughters when they go out late at night, but do you say that to your sons.
“But it’s really in many ways a specific issue, but there are larger issues and that is why to me there are so many aspects to this problem. It starts with, first of all the idea of respect and equality (for women) and in a sense the kind of non-discriminatory opportunities which are given. Ensuring today the safety and security of women is a very big issue….”
The EAM said he did not want to make any political comment on the August 9 rape-murder of a woman doctor inside the hospital’s seminar room, an incident that has shocked the nation.
“What today is happening there, there are other aspects of it. I don’t want to go into anything political outside the country, but all I can say is that everybody in this hall like me would have this deep sense of outrage and anger at what happened to that doctor.”
