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NEW DELHI: Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh, Phool Singh Baraiya, on Saturday triggered controversy after ‘justifying’ rape and linking it to religious scriptures.In a video posted on his Facebook page, Singh said that any man walking on the road could feel disturbed on seeing a beautiful woman, which, according to him, could lead to rape. “Rape ki theory yeh hai ki koi bhi dimaag ka aadmi agar raste par jaate hue kisi khoobsurat ladki ko dekh le, to uska mann vichlit ho sakta hai aur rape ho sakta hai” (“The theory of rape is that any man, if he sees a beautiful woman while walking on the road, can get disturbed, and rape can happen”), he said.Singh further claimed that certain scriptures allowed rape by promising spiritual rewards. Without referring to any religion, he said that such texts suggested that if a person was unable to visit a pilgrimage site, an alternative path included having sex with women from Dalit or tribal women to gain spiritual merit. “Yeh likha hai ki is jaati ke saath sex karne se us teerth ka phal milega” (“It is written that having sex with a person of this caste will give the spiritual reward of that pilgrimage”), he said.The Congress MLA also claimed that rape occurred against women from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs, even though, according to him, they were not beautiful.“Adivasi me kaun si ati sundar stree hai, SC ki kaun si aisi Sundar stree hai, OBC me sundar stree hai? Kyun hota hai balatkaar? Unke granthon me hai.” “Which Adivasi woman is very beautiful, which SC woman is very beautiful, which OBC woman is beautiful? Why does rape happen? It is in their scriptures,” he said. This, according to him, was also the reason why rape happened against small children.The remarks are causing uproar. BJP union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called the statement unacceptable. He said, “For me, daughters are like goddesses. We cannot view daughters by dividing them on the basis of caste or society.” “How much more will you divide society? Will you now divide daughters as well? Such indecent remarks should never be made. This is personally very painful for me,” he added.