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Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on nSaturday said people were 'rightly angry' over the gangrape of a paramedic student and called for 'very stringent' laws to ensure safety of women.
Kumar said the death of the gangrape victim had shaken the conscience of the entire country and that her sacrifice should lead to the creation of 'a new India, a new society where women are respected'.
"Then only all this upsurge, all this anger, all this anguish will have some meaning. We should be able to turn this in creating a new India," the speaker told PTI in New Delhi.
"Laws should be made very stringent to instill fear and to act as a deterrent. All institutional mechanisms, all steps should be taken to ensure that women are safe," she said.
Kumar replied in the negative when asked whether the protests in the capital and elsewhere indicated to a disconnect between the political class and the common man. Terming the Delhi gangrape as a 'gruesome and heinous' incident, Kumar said she would have been very sad if the anger among the people had not erupted.
"Yes, they are angry and they are rightly angry. And we should, without any delay, start taking action as they want," she said.
Kumar said she would have been 'very sad' if the anger of the people would not have erupted. "Rightly so, I would have been very sad if this anger wouldn't have erupted, wouldn't have come out and people would not have come on the street. They have come out very angrily. We should understand their anger, we should not say they are angry...," she said.