Chandigarh Gangrape: Kirron Kher receives backlash for her victim-blaming comment, issues ‘clarification’

Kirron Kher received severe backlash on social media for blaming the rape survivor.

By: News Desk |
November 30, 2017 5:58 pm

BJP MP and actor Kirron Kher has received a severe backlash on social media for blaming the Chandigarh gang-rape survivor. She suggested that the girl shouldn’t have boarded an auto rickshaw when there were already three men sitting inside.

#WATCH BJP MP Kirron Kher says ‘she (Chandigarh rape victim) should not have boarded the auto rickshaw when she saw three men sitting in it’ (29.11.17) pic.twitter.com/Daqe95rTIO

— ANI (@ANI) November 30, 2017

The incident took place on November 17 when a 22-year-old was allegedly raped by an auto driver and his two accomplices. According to the Indian Express, the girl, a Dehradun resident, was returning to her PG accommodation in Mohali after completing her stenography classes in Sector 37. She took a shared auto, in which two men were already sitting. The auto driver and his two accomplices raped the girl and dumped her in Sector 53.

Addressing a press meet on November 29 on the incident, Kirron Kher said that “girls need to be careful”. Her statement garnered a lot of criticism on Twitter and Facebook. The opposition has also slammed her.

Kirron Kher is right.
The victim should have bought a BMW and hired 5 armed guards.
Can’t understand why more people don’t do that.
Victims are such gareeb idiots.
They deserve 0 empathy. https://t.co/XdCodB7jU5

— Sorabh Pant (@hankypanty) November 30, 2017

STOP BLAMING THE VICTIM

— प्रेरणा (@Iam_Prerna) November 30, 2017

Me: MP madam delhi air is so polluted i think i got lung cancer

Kirron kher: you should have stopped breathing when you knew that air was polluted.
Me:

#404 #logicnotfound

— param(the sailor man) (@param7755) November 30, 2017

See the attitude of the Lutyens elite of #BJP. A suit-boot ki sarkar will never understand what it feels like to be a woman stranded on a street & getting increasingly desperate with each passing minute because no public transport is in sight https://t.co/heYKEbmhNa #KirronKher

— Anna MM Vetticad (@annavetticad) November 30, 2017

.@KirronKherBJP,
when was the last time you used public transport? Or faced the prospect of being stranded on the road due to lack of autos?
Your ‘expert’ comment is a slap on the face of every woman who risks going out there to make a life for themselves https://t.co/3QjJPRoKc9

— Akash Banerjee (@akashbanerjee) November 30, 2017

Instead of making sure that our public transport is safe you want women’s not to this or that and avoid this or that.
This is so sad.
There is majority of men in a parliament so then according to your analogy women’s should also avoid Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

— ankush (@crazy4deals_in) November 30, 2017

After getting lambasted on social media, Kirron Kher has issued a standard clarification through her Facebook page saying ‘her statement was taken out of context, was selectively reported and gravely politicised’. She said,

I strongly believe that women safety is an enduring and continuous process in our country. Yesterday, my statement about the gang rape in Chandigarh, was taken out of context, selectively reported, and gravely politicised- all of which distracted from the real message I wanted to send out to the girls, as a woman, as a mother, and as their representative in the Parliament…”

Read her entire statement here.

But Mrs Kher, the damage has already been done.

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