Central Reserve Police Force DG Durga Prasad, who finds himself embroiled in a lot of controversies after the usage of pellet guns in Kashmir has again courted controversy by a scathingly misogynist remark. On being interviewed by a Dainik Bhaskar correspondent about the use of pellet guns on protestors in Kashmir, he compared the usage of pellet guns with a husband beating his wife. When the reporter asked him, “When would the usage of pellet guns stop and is there any pressure from the government to stop their usage,” he said, “It’s like asking when would you stop beating your wife or why would you stop beating your wife, we can’t say anything for sure right?”
He also said, that he feels “saddened” by the people being killed but “we only have two options either them (pellet guns) or AK-47.” The CRPF has time and again been accused of using disproportionate amount of force on protesters and the pellet guns have rendered more than 100 youths in the valley blind.
Clarifying the army’s stance he has said that there is no weapon which is “non lethal” and the force uses these weapons when it is the “utmost necessity.” We feel very sorry for them as youngsters have to bear injuries due to the firing of pellet guns. We ourselves are trying to use it in bare minimum so that there are less injuries. But we use them under the extreme situation when crowd control fails by other means,” he said replying a volley of questions on use of pellet guns in Kashmir Valley.
A large number of youths have been injured in the clashes between the protesters and army in the wake of killing of Burhan Wani, a top militant of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Even though Mr Prasad is well within his rights to justify the usage of pellet guns in the valley, the apex court has asked the government to look for alternatives to ‘pellet guns.’ But such a misogynist statement coming from a senior officer of the security forces show the archaic and sick mindset that he possesses which makes him entirely comfortable with the idea of beating one’s wife.
