TNI Bureau: While the Centre is taking initiatives to check the crime against women and nation is debating over bringing strong laws to punish the rapists, Puri Sankaracharya Swami Sri Nischalananda Saraswati dragged the media attention giving orthodox statements that western culture is responsible for rise in rape cases in India.

Puri Sankaracharya during his visit in Kolkata on Wednesday said that the western culture like club, films, and drugs are destroying the ancient culture and age old values of the country. He said that changes have been seen in India in past 65 years after the independence.

Referring to the Delhi gangrape, which shocked the entire nation, he said that such horrific incidents do not happen suddenly. It shows the thin line of culture and values has been crossed in the name of civilisation and development. He said that people should look into the cause why it happened and should maintain the human values.

Sri Saraswati said that people were roaming freely earlier. But there has been decline in human values and our rich culture, which teach us to respect women as our mothers or sisters. Expressing a big concern over the growing number of rape/gangrape cases, he said that the western culture is the chief reason behind it.

When asked about the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers at LoC, he termed the act as ‘barbaric’. He alleged that the government is not taking it strongly to deal with such incidents.