Goa MP calls Russian envoy’s action ‘rough’

PANAJI - Goa Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik, who has in the past been hauled up for his callous comments on rape, Sunday said Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakin’s reaction was “rough” when he threatened to issue advisory against the state following a nine-year-old Russian girl’s rape in Goa Jan 26.

The Congress MP was speaking to a local television news channel HCN.

“For a country (Russia) where there is nearly no rule of law, he (Kadakin) cannot comment on administration here,” Naik said, when asked for his comments on the adverse publicity received by Goa following the girl’s rape.

Naik said Kadakin should instead have acted in the manner External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna did while handling the issue of assaults on Indian students in Australia.

“He was rough,” Naik said, referring to Kadakin’s threat to issue an advisory to Russian citizens not to travel to Goa, if authorities there did not act fast to punish the rapist.

The controversial MP had created an uproar in December last year with his comments in the Rajya Sabha that some rape victims invite trouble by “socialising” with strangers.

The former Goa Congress president had also said that a rape case should be treated differently if the victim was known to be moving with strangers beyond midnight. It had invited sharp criticism from across political spectrum and women’s groups.

The Goa police has arrested two persons in connection with the Russian minor’s rape at Arambol, 40 kms from here. Both the accused worked at a pharmaceutical company at Dhargal, a short distance from the beach.

–Indo Asian News Service