Lucknow, July 8: Surendra Narayan Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday landed in a soup when he made another insensitive remark on rape incidents in the country. Calling sexual assault cases 'natural pollution', Surendra Singh said even Lorn Ram cannot stop rapes from happening.

"I can say this with full confidence that even Lord Ram will not be able to prevent such instances. This is natural pollution, which has not left anybody untouched. It is people's responsibility to treat others as their family, as their sisters. We can only control it through values, not the constitution," the BJP legislator said.

Surendra Singh is not new to controversies. He has made statements like "prostitutes are better than government staffs", and blamed parents and smartphones for rising rape incidents. He defended BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is presently in Sitapur jail in regard to the Unnao rape case, saying no one can rape a mother of three children.

"I am speaking from the psychological point of view; no one can rape a mother of three children. It is not possible, this is a conspiracy against him (Kuldeep Singh Sengar)," he told ANI, adding, "Yes maybe her father was thrashed by some people but I refuse to believe rape charge."

Politicians across parties in India often make outrageous remarks on rape incidents. In April 2014, while opposing death penalty to three men convicted in a gangrape case, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had said, "boys will be boys, they commit mistakes."

In 2015, Karnataka's then Home Minister and Congress leader K J George faced flak for saying that two men raping a woman cannot be termed as gang rape. In 2013, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said that the rapes are an urban crime caused by westernisation, and do not happen in rural India rich with traditional values.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 08, 2018 04:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).