Facing flak, Bharti defends ‘beautiful women’ comment

New Delhi: At the receiving end of criticism by opposition parties and women’s groups over his “beautiful women” comment, former Delhi minister Somnath Bharti today said he was trying only to illustrate how safe the national capital would become if the ruling AAP had control of police.

“I was trying to say that the environment in Delhi would be that secure that the most beautiful woman could walk freely,” said the former Delhi law minister.

The Malviya Nagar MLA had yesterday said his statement was twisted by the media.

“I have said beautiful women laden with jewelleries can travel at midnight fearlessly is the kind of benchmark one can measure security level at Delhi against, if AAP has police control (sic),” Bharti said in a post on Facebook.

Meanwhile, asked for his response in the matter of Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung giving his nod to prosecute him in the 2014 Khirki Extension midnight raid case, Bharti said he could not comment as he had not seen the order.

“Neither have I seen the text nor the decision. So, until and unless I have seen it, I cannot say anything,” he said.

“I have no idea. They are (acting) within their domain to activate their case or deactivate the case,” added Bharti.