International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Thursday said Indian authorities, starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, should pay more attention to the safety of women in the country, PTI reported. Her remarks come amid nationwide outrage over the rape of minor girls in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua and Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district.
“What has happened [in India] is just revolting,” Lagarde said at a conference in Washington, according to PTI. “I would hope that the Indian authorities, starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi pay more attention because it is needed for the women of India.”
IMF’s managing director said that when she last met Modi in Davos in January, she had told him that he had not mentioned the women of India enough. “And it is not just a question of talking about them,” she said.
However, she added that her remarks were her personal opinion, and not IMF’s position.
In the Unnao case, a BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, is accused of raping a teenager in June 2017. In Kathua, eight people are accused of abducting, sedating, repeatedly raping and murdering an eight-year-old in January.
Modi on Thursday said “rape is rape” and that it should not be politicised. “When a child is raped... we cannot compare these incidents in numbers for different governments,” he said at an interaction with London’s Indian community at the Central Hall Westminster. “How can we accept this?”
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