NEW DELHI: The man who said women should be punished for being raped, today blamed women for the mass molestation that occurred in Bengaluru on New Year's Eve.

"In these modern times, the more skin women show, the more they are considered fashionable. If my sister or daughter stays out beyond sunset celebrating December 31 with a man who isn't their husband or brother, that's not right," said Abu Azmi, a Samajwadi Party leader who two years ago said women should be punished for being raped.

[This isn't the first time Azmi has been a waste of oxygen here, FYI http://www.fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=101626 ]

Azmi didn't stop there. He went on, in an increasingly lewd manner.

"If there's gasoline, there will be fire. If there's spilt sugar, ants will gravitate towards it for sure," Azmi continued.

This SP leader, who said two years ago that women should get the death penalty for sex outside marriage, is by no means the only one who feels this way - in 2017.

When asked yesterday about the mass molestation by mobs on MG Road and Brigade Road in the heart of Bengaluru, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said " these kinds of things do happen."

"During days like New Year or Christmas Day, there are women who are harassed or treated badly. We take precautionary measures. But unfortunately, on days like New Year, a large number of youngsters gather on Brigade Road, Commercial Street and MG Road. And youngsters are almost like westerners. They try to copy the west, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing. So some disturbance, some girls are harassed, these kinds of things do happen," Parameshwara told a TV channel yesterday.