NEW DELHI:
The mother of a student who was fatally gang-raped on a bus led the
outrage Friday against an Indian political leader who described three
convicted multiple rapists as "boys" who had made "mistakes".
During
a rally in the state of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, Mulayam Singh Yadav
said his Samajwadi Party would try to change the law on punishments for
rapists after India´s ongoing elections as he spoke out in defence of
three men who have been sentenced to death for repeat sexual assaults.
"Three
poor fellows have been sentenced to death. Should rape cases lead to
hanging?" said the 74-year-old Yadav, whose party governs the
electorally crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
"They are
boys, they make mistakes," he added in reference to the three men aged
28, 21 and 19 who were sentenced in Mumbai last week for their part in
two gang-rapes.
They were the first death sentences to be
handed down for multiple sex attacks since the law was toughened
following the outrage over the December 2012 attack on the bus in New
Delhi.
The mother of the 23-year-old victim, who died of
her injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks after the assault, called
Yadav a "disgusting and shameless" politician and urged voters to
reject leaders who "don´t understand the torture women go through".
"His comments hurt us so much," the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told.
"Every
day women get raped and they are all mistakes? He talks about doing
away with the death sentence for rapists but parents like us feel even
death is not enough for rapists. They deserve worse."
Yadav´s
remarks sparked a backlash on social media where #backingrapists and
´Mulayam Singh´ were top trending topics on Twitter.
Political
parties and women´s rights groups poured scorn on the 74-year-old
ex-wrestler over his "misogynistic" comments and demanded an apology.
