14 min or 14 sec, doesn't matter; harassment is harassment: Rishiraj Singh

Catch contacted Singh for an answer to this question, and his simple response was a "No."

Claiming that his comment was taken completely out of context, Singh, at first refused to "give a byte". But, on realising that perhaps what the media needs is some context, he sighed audibly and asked me to "get a pen and paper".

Facts first

"Let's go back to the Nirbhaya case in December 2012," he said. "The Justice JS Verma committee gave a 630 page report [regarding rape laws] that resulted in an amendment in the criminal law in 2013."

Insisting that the most significant parts of this amendment were in IPC Section 354 (A,B,C & D), Singh said, "[354] A & D are all right. But stalking and harassment were also made cognisable under this law. 354C deals with voyeurism."

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This, he said, includes any form of stalking or making another person uncomfortable like "taking a picture without consent or looking at someone secretly or trying to look through their clothes."

"Now, since you are a woman and you register a case under such circumstances, it'll be taken on merit." he said.

Yes, but what's the 14 second analogy about?

"It's a colloquial way of saying things," Singh said, asking, "Don't you say you'll be 'there in a minute' when you actually mean two or five or even ten?"

Singh believes his comment has been blown out of proportion, which is quite unfortunate as he was attempting to educate women about a law meant to protect them.

"I was just encouraging girls to report voyeurism and cases like that. It's high time women started reporting these cases."

"It really doesn't matter if it's 14 seconds or 14 minutes. That's what I was trying to say. My insistence on a time as short as 14 seconds was to stress on the need to not bother about time. If a woman feels harassed in 2 seconds, it counts," he said.

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On being asked if the misinterpretation of his comment does more harm that good, Singh seemed unperturbed. Given the important message he was trying to convey, Singh is understandably unamused by the jokes floating around. His response to Kerala sports minister Jayaraj's take on his comment being 'disgusting' was, "He is entitled to his opinion. You can ask him why he said so if you like."

All that does matter, according to Singh, is the law. "It's an important law. Let's not fixate on 14 seconds or 15 seconds. It needs to be used, it needs to be talked about, it needs to be read about," he said.

And that, he claimed, was all he was trying.