A large number of MPs, especially women lawmakers, from different political persuarions agreed with BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s call for death penalty for rapists.
Congress’s Girija Vyas agreed that the situation in the national capital was worrisome and advocated fast-track courts to deal with cases of sexual assault. She also wanted the ambit of definition of “rape” in the Indian Penal Code to be expanded so as to include cases of eve teasing.
In Rajya Sabha, for two and half hours, member after member expressed anguish and disgust.
“The incident continued for 90 minutes not in a village or some jungle but in South Delhi... who will take responsibility - you or the Delhi Chief Minister. You look after Delhi police,” BJP MP Maya Singh said. Singh said the House should pass a proposal that no lawyer will plead on behalf of the perpetrators of such crime.
Her party colleague, M Venkaiah Naidu asked the Home Ministry to take responsibility, even as he had a small fight with the deputy chair on going beyond the time limit of three minutes during the discussion.
In fact, due to the surge of emotions, most speakers wanted to go beyond their allotted time. Congress’s Renuka Chowdhary described the rape case as “our collective social failure”.