Shocker! Why the Delhi gangrape victim went for a late night movie show, asks NCP leader

Nagpur: A member of Maharashtra Women's Commission has sparked a huge controversy by saying that body language of girls should not invite attention of potential rapists and questioned why the Delhi gangrape victim went for a late night movie show."Girls should be very careful what they wear and at what time they move out in city. Their body language should not invite attention of the potential rapists lurking around the streets," Dr Asha Mirge, a member of the State Commission for Women, said here yesterday.Referring to the gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi in December 2012 and the last year's sexual assault of a photojournalist in Mumbai, Mirge asked, "Why Nirbhaya, the victim in the infamous Delhi gangrape case in December 2012 should go to movie for a late night show (11 PM), and similarly the photo-journalist in Mumbai go to an isolated place of Shakti Mills at 6 PM?""Girls should always remain alert," said Mirge, a gynaecologist who is also associated with the NCP.She made the remarks while sharing the dais with NCP MP Supriya Sule at the party's youth wing function here yesterday.The SCW member also asked the girls to do an introspection of their dressing sense and hair style.However, she later apologised for her statements and demanded strict punishment for the culprits in rape cases. In New Delhi, NCP today disassociated itself from the remarks of Asha Mirge. “The person concerned who has made such a statement is insensitive, has no business to do it and does not belong to the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) in any capacity for us to react and take notice of,” NCP leader and Union Minister Praful Patel said. “I am hearing her name (Asha Mirge) for the first time that I should react to somebody who claims to be from my party. If at all somebody has made such an insensitivestatement, we will take action if the person belongs to ourparty,” he added.Dr Asha Mirge, a gynaecologist from Akola, had said girls should be mindful of their body language and attire so as not to invite the attention of potential rapists and asked why the Delhi gangrape victim went out for a late night movie show.Mirge spoke at NCP's youth wing convention in Nagpur yesterday where she shared the dais with party chief Sharad Pawar's MP daughter Supriya Sule.An embarassed Supriya Sule later admitted that what Mirge said was inappropriate.“We are absolutely a gender-equal party. We want every man or woman to get security, have the freedom to travel to any village, taluka, city safely at any time of the day,” Sule, NCP MP from Baramati, said. Mirge later admitted her mistake and apologised.“I am not a politician; my intention was not to hurt anyone. I express my regret.”Sule pleaded for the matter to be closed after Mirge voiced her regret.“Mr Pawar (Union Minister Sharad Pawar) was the first person who got women's rights endorsed in Maharashtra. We gave women 50 per cent reservation. Our party is very pro-women,” she said.Asked why she did not interrupt Mirge's speech when she was seated right next to her, Sule said,” The manners that I have learnt from my parents as a child is that if somebody is making a speech, one should not interrupt. Once she had completed what she had to say, I made my intervention.“She is older than me; she is my mother's age. She was speaking what she felt was apppropriate. I wanted for her to finish her speech and then I made my intervention which is on record which can be verified. Many TV channels were present there,” she said.