The video of his statement has widely shared, sparking humorous reactions and memes.
A Senior Kerala officer’s comment that continuous staring at a woman for 14 seconds can land a man in jail, has gone viral on social media with a state minister terming it “irritating”.
“There are sections in law to jail a man for annoyingly staring at a woman for 14 seconds. Please use it (the provisions in the law), if it is the case,” Rishiraj Singh, the excise commissioner of Kerala said in Kochi on Saturday.
Kerala Sports Minister EP Jayarajan found the remarks “irritating”. “If a bureaucrat makes remarks which are not in law, certainly the minister concerned will examine it and necessary steps will be taken,” he said.
According to the Indian Penal Code, in such cases, time is not a factor. If a woman feels a man’s stare is obscene or offensive, she can register a complaint with the police, who will have to register a case.
The video of his statement has widely shared, sparking humorous reactions and memes.
Some social media users have used dialogues from popular films in Malayalam to create memes and some people online asked what might happen if a man blinked, and some quipped that sales of sunglasses would go up.
Most users have posted memes on popular troll pages like ICU and Troll Malayalam.
But some users said Mr Singh had raised a valid point about women’s safety. They said that Singh made the statement in good spirit while addressing a group of people at an event about women’s safety.
In his speech, Singh also emphasised on how important it is for women to learn martial arts as a life skill. He prompted them to report about situations which they feel outrage their modesty. He also urged women to keep small knives and pepper sprays handy.
Here are a few trolls surfaced online: