Chidambaram says honour killings shameful for 21st century's India

New Delhi, July 28 (ANI): Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday expressed his deep resentment over violence against women, saying "we should hang our heads in shame" for incidents like honour killings taking place in the country in the 21st century.

"The vilest crimes are committed in the name of defending the honour of the family or women and we should hang our heads in shame when such incidents take place in India in the 21st century," Chidambaram said.

He was making a statement in the Rajya Sabha in response to a calling attention notice of Brinda Karat (CPI-M) on increasing incidents of honour killings.

He said "I recoil with shame" on reading in the newspapers that two teenagers - a Dalit boy and a Muslim girl - were brutally killed in a village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh in the name of honour.

Chidambaram added that he had similar feelings when he read that a young man, accompanied by a warrant officer, was killed when he was on his way to fetch his wife from a village in Jind village in Haryana or when he read that a newly married couple in Delhi fear for their lives following a fatwa issued by a panchayat in Jhajjar district in Haryana.

"However, the Government of India is deeply concerned about violence against women and recognizes that real progress can only be made by addressing the causes that are rooted in anachronistic attitudes and false values," he said. (ANI)