UP minister Ram Govind Chaudhary: Blame people for rape, riots; not government

LUCKNOW: "It is people who indulge in riots and commit rapes, the government cannot stop it. People will have to check themselves," Ram Govind Chaudhary, education minister in the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet, said on Tuesday in reply to a media query over increasing incidents of rape and riots in the state.

Asked about the reason for the failure of the state government to curb such crimes, Chaudhary said: "Ismein government kuchh nahi kar sakti hai... Balatkaar karne wala to janata mein se hi hota hain ... is liye janta ko hi ise rokna hoga" (Government cannot do anything in this... rapists are from the society ...so it is the society that will have to stop it).

This is not the first time an SP minister has been caught with his foot in his mouth. Earlier, party president Mulayam Singh Yadav described rape as a "galti" (mistake) one commits usually during his youth. Mulayam's statement came while addressing a public meeting in Faizabad during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

A day before relinquished charge, former governor of Uttar Pradesh Aziz Qureshi was interacting with reporters when someone sought his comment on the murder of a 30-year-old laboratory technician earlier in the day. He said: "Even God cannot stop crime from taking place in UP."