Where other politicians have made derogatory comments about rape victims in the past, even going so far to make it the victim’s fault, Derek O’ Brien went onto to make this emotional statement that many of us can totally connect with. Heck, we probably feel the same way. “As a dad, I’d have taken out a gun and shot the rapist,” he declared in the Parliament yesterday while rooting for the Juvenile Justice Bill as a representative of Trinamool Congress.
“Had it been my daughter, god forbid, what would I do? Would I have trusted the laws of the country or hire the best lawyers or taken out a gun and shot him? I would have taken out a gun and shot him. So, it is an emotional matter,” he added.
He said, “I urge Parliament to put laws that ordinary citizens want…I stand here to support the bill…It is a good bill and we shouldn’t wait for an ideal bill.”
When a BJP member remarked that Derek is a Member of Parliament, the TMC law maker said, “Don’t take me wrong. I am trying to express myself. I am not acting irresponsible. I am talking as a father what would I do.”
We totally get you, Derek and we are glad that there is atleast one sensitive politician in the Parliament. It could almost make up for the way your own party chief, Mamata Banerjee, behaved with Suzette Jordan, the Park Street rape victim who passed away recently. Only it doesn’t quite compensate for her behaviour. When Suzette Jordan waived her right to anonymity and came out in the open about what happened to her, Banerjee called her a liar adding that she fabricated this story to bring down the government.
