‘Boyfriend culture leads to rape’

Bhopal: A ruling BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh has created a flutter in his party circle by blaming “boyfriend culture” for the growing incidents of rape and molestation of girls in the state.

“Girls fall victims to sexual violence because they make boyfriends. They should avoid making boyfriends for their safety,” BJP legislator from Guna Panna Lal Sakya said at an official function at Guna late on Friday.

Mr Sakya, who is known to stir hornets’ nest by making such controversial remarks at regular intervals, was addressing students of a government college in district headquarters town of Guna.

He distributed smart phones to the students at a function organised in the college.

“Women are worshipped in Indian culture. Invasion of western culture has led to rise in incidents of sexual violence against women. Sexual violence against women will automatically stop if girls avoid making boyfriends and boys avoid making girlfriends,” he said. MP has earned the dubious distinction of witnessing highest number of incidents of rape in the country.

He also expressed strong reservation against observing International Women’s Day in India, saying that this was a western culture.

“In Indian culture, women’s days are observed four times a year”, he said citing four Hindu festivals where women deities are worshipped.

He had earlier sparked a row when he dubbed India cricket captain Virat Kohli as “unpatriotic” for deciding to hold his marriage with his long time girlfriend and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma in Italy.

“The couple made money in India and chose to splurge money in a foreign country by tying the knot there,” he had then said drawing ridicules from many quarters.