Jaitley clarifies his "one small incident of rape" comment
Jaitley said: “I regret that my speech was construed, or some word that I used was construed as insensitive, that was not my intention. I am very sensitive to these issues myself.”
He said there was “no question” of trivialising any incident.
Earlier, the minister had said at a tourism ministers’ conference: “One small incident of rape in Delhi advertised world over is enough to cost us billions of dollars in terms of global tourism.”
The statement was seen as an insensitive approach towards the 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident when a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was assaulted and gang-raped on a moving bus by six men who also tortured her with an iron rod.
The incident shocked the entire nation and was condemned worldwide, triggering an angry outcry by civil society members to bring changes in laws on crimes against women.
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