Indian govt threatens BBC over broadcast of Delhi rape film

The Indian government threatened to take action against BBC for broadcasting the documentary, India's Daughter, in which a gang-rapist and murderer blamed his victim for the attack, The Telegraph reported on Friday.

The government has issued a notice to YouTube and other social media sites warning them to remove links to the BBC documentary.

The BBC film features one of the four men involved in the 2012 Delhi gang rape claiming the victim, a 23-year-old Delhi student, was to be blamed for her sexual assault.

The film was to be shown in seven countries, including India and Britain, this Sunday on March 8 to mark International Women's Day. However, an Indian court ruled that the documentary should not be screened in India.

Read: India bans broadcast of gang-rapist documentary

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh threatened action against the BBC after it broadcast the film ahead of schedule on Wednesday evening.

“We had asked to not release the documentary, but BBC still released it … We will investigate and will take action accordingly," he warned.

Notices were later sent to social media outlets giving them until Thursday evening to remove the film from their sites.

Mukesh Singh said the victim was to be blamed for the rape because she should have been at home at the time

"A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he said.

Read: A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy, says Delhi bus rapist

"Boys and girls are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good.”

People “had a right to teach them a lesson”, he said, adding that women should accept it without struggling.

“When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her'," he said.

Embroiled in a fierce debate, Indian parliamentarians, journalists and the father of a woman who died after a savage gang-rape in Delhi in 2012, urged the government on Thursday to lift the ban on a documentary about the attack.

MP Javed Akhtar rose in Parliament questioning why the documentary was being deemed offensive when he had heard similar things in the House.

“I have heard such things in the house. If a woman wears such clothes and if a woman goes out late at night then she is inviting trouble’,” he lashed out.

“It’s good this documentary has been made so people in India know they think like the rapist. If any one finds it objectionable, they should change their mindset,” Akhtar added.

Read: Ban on Delhi gang-rape documentary stirs fierce debate in India