A few days back Mulayam Singh Yadav, leader of Samajwadi Party made a statement about rape including false rape cases during an election rally which was twisted completely out of context and splashed all over the media, cashing in and keeping alive the rape hysteria among Indian public after the Nirbhaya rape case in Dec 2012.

What Mulayam Singh Yadav said (in Hindi) and translated into English is as follows:

“When a boy or girls became friends, stayed together, but after some time if any misunderstanding happens, the girl files rape cases”

“Boys can make mistakes, but is death penalty justified?”

The media is reporting only the last sentence of the above statement:

“Boys can make mistakes, but is death penalty justified?”

The media is quickly jumping to conclusion that the words “make mistakes” means a euphemistic watering down of the actual “crime of rape”.  Whereas the word used in Hindi – “galti” (meaning mistake) can also be used euphemistically to denote a pre-marital affair.  In Indian society where pre-marital sex is frowned upon and mostly a secret affair, using a word like “galti” makes sense for Hindi speaking masses, but it can only mean “crime of rape” to the holier-than-everyone media.

If the complete statement is read, it will be clear that Mulayam Singh was referring to the false cases of rape filed after a relationship gone sour.