Madhya Pradesh<\/a> government, described the incident as \u201ca lesson for all \u2013 for us and for the players as well\u201d.<\/p>\nMr Vijayvargiya, who serves as the minister for urban development, housing and parliamentary affairs in the state, faced widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and social media users for his comments, which many described as \u201cvictim blaming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever players go anywhere, they should at least inform the local security or administration,\u201d he told reporters in Hindi. \u201cSince players are very popular, they too should remain cautious about their safety wherever they travel. This incident is a lesson for everyone \u2013 for us and for the players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposition Congress party politician Arun Yadav called the remarks \u201cdisgusting and regressive\u201d.<\/p>\n
Singer Chinmayi Sripaada wrote on X (formerly Twitter): \u201cBJP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya basically says here that women visiting another city or country must think about their own safety when stepping out without telling anyone. So basically it was the women\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several social media users also expressed anger at the minister\u2019s remarks, accusing him of offering \u201cdistasteful\u201d commentary instead of taking responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can be more pathetic?\u201d wrote user Avishekh Goyal on X. \u201cNo accountability, no responsibility, no decency, no morals. BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya brushing off the molestation of Australian players as just \u2018fan moments\u2019 shows how this power-drunk regime sees women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incidents of street harassment remain a pervasive problem in many Indian cities, where women frequently report being subjected to unwanted comments, staring, touching, and other forms of inappropriate behaviour in public spaces. <\/p>\n
Despite stricter laws and growing public awareness, many cases go unreported due to fear of stigma or lack of effective police response.<\/p>\n
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also condemned the incident.<\/p>\n
Calling it “a deeply regrettable and isolated incident”, BCCI vowed to “review the existing safety protocols and strengthen them, if necessary, to ensure such incidents are not repeated”.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Maharashtra police increased security in Navi Mumbai where the women\u2019s team will play next. Around 600 police officials have been deployed across the city, including at the team hotels and the venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-229278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}