New Delhi, August 19, 2022 (PPI-OT):Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA of Godhra, who was a member of the committee that recommended the release of rape and murder convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, was condemned after he justified the remission by calling them “Brahmins and men of good sansakar”.

Talking to media, Godhra MLA CK Raul said, “They are good people. They are Brahmins and because of being a Brahmin, they were men of Good Sanskaar. Their conduct in jail was good”. He also insinuated that those convicts, who were given life imprisonment for raping Bilkis and murdering her family members including a toddler, could have been falsely implicated and said that he does not know whether they have committed the crime or not.

“I don’t know if they had committed a crime or not. But there could be an intention behind the crime,” he said. He further said that the committee was assigned to look into the behaviour of these convicts. When he looked at their behaviours, he felt that they would not have carried out riots, he claimed. These shocking remarks made by the Raul about the convicted rapists and murderers have drawn massive outrage on social media.

Reacting to Raul’s remarks, Dr. Audrey Truschke, a historian at a US university, recounted about the old caste system in which the Brahmins were given less punishment for the crime. “In pre-modern Sanskrit texts, different punishments are prescribed for people depending on caste, with Brahmins getting off easiest. Why? Because they’re Brahmins,” she said.

Citing the controversial remarks, Journalist Ranjitha Gunasekaran said that there is misconception that there is no casteism in modern India. “This is a toxic mix of majoritarianism, misogyny and caste supremacy that sees the victims of this horrific crime as less than human and therefore less worthy of true justice,” she said.

TRS leader Satish Reddy targeted the BJP for Raul’s remarks. “BJP now terms rapists as ‘Men of Good Sanskar’. This is the lowest a party can ever stoop,” he said. As the outrage against the release of the convicts who committed crimes against humanity continues, there is no official statement from the BJP on it. However, the BJP MLA justified it while a Hindutva group, the VHP, has garlanded the convicts after being released.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org