HYDERABAD: Offering a bizarre explanation for the increasing number of rapes in the state, director-general of police V Dinesh Reddy on Friday said one of the factors responsible was modern women’s preference for ‘fashionable’ dresses like salwar kameezes.Presenting the ‘achievements’ of his department, the DGP acknowledged that there were a total of 1,291 rape cases were registered in the state till Nov.2011 comapred to 1,228 in the same time in 2010.But the DGP distanced the police from any responsibility for the phenomenon and instead attributed it partly to women themselves. “Rapes and murders are not strictly under the control of the police. I am telling you a frankly down-to-earth point. People are turning out to be more fashionable. Even in villages they are wearing salwar kameezes. All these provoke and this cannot be under the control of the police. So rapes increase or decrease...” the DGP said.The comments raised eyebrows among the IPS officers present at the DGP’s annual press meet and also some women journalists.Incidentally, senior IPS officer Tejdeep Kaur Menon was seated nearby as the DGP spoke. She wore a salwar kameez. The remarks reached the ears of Union home minister P Chidambaram who said categorically. that the DGP was out of line. ‘’The police are not the ones who should decide what women must wear.Each one in this country is free to wear whatever he or she wishes to wear.And I don’t think there should be any kind of policing, certainly not by the DG of police,” he said.Incidentally, just a few minutes before proffering his bizarre analysis, the DGP had revealed that the police are planning to post “well-dressed women” at police stations to greet complainants so as to soothe their fear of facing khaki- clad policeman.Some of the journalists at the press conference asked the DGP whether he would be able to ensure protection to these ‘well-dressed’ women.“Would anyone have the audacity to come and do eve-teasing (in a police station)?’’ he replied and went on to explain that rapes take place “when a hapless woman is there” or when there are factors “provoking men folk to do that”.Asked whether he would recommend a dress code for the whole spectrum of society, Dinesh Reddy said, “ We don’t intend to impose any dress code, ours is a democratic country and everyone is bound to wear whatever they feel like.But the fact is that rape could happen because of various reasons and this could be one of them.’’ But is there a solution for the problem? “We have to cross the bridge when it comes,’’ the DGP suggested.After his remarks triggered a furious reaction from women, the DGP’s office released a note in the evening claiming that his comments had been ‘misinterpreted.’ “The DGP has said one of the factors is the provoking dress which is being worn as present day fashion for which police has no control,’’ it said.“What hurts the DGP is for the reasons best known, when some news channels misinterpreted it,’’ it said.
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