(Image source from: Twitterati's reaction on Arun Jaitley's remark on rape})

Finance minister Arun Jaitley was criticised by opposition parties and social activists for his remark on rape being a small incident. But it was on Twitter that the senior BJP minister was flayed the most for his insensitive statement.

Recently Jaitly stated that the December 16 gangrape was a 'small incident' that had cost Delhi losses amounting to crores of rupees in tourism.

Predictably the statement raised a storm of outrage, with everyone including the Delhi gangrape victim's parents to opposition parties to Twitter users expressing shock and disgust. Political leaders, especially from the Congress, were also quick to condemn Jaitley and flayed his insensitive statement.

The gangrape victim's parents criticised the statement, saying that the remarks would boost the morale of rapists

Nirbhaya’s father said that Arun Jaitley is more worried about tourism, than the loss of life of an honest citizen. He questioned isn't her death a loss to the nation. While the victim's mother said that he calls the gangrape a small incident as such things never happen to people like him. Nirbhaya’s mother mother dubbed Jaitley's statement as irresponsible, which has deeply disappointed and hurt her

Arun Jaitley's had said, "It's [Tourism is] a gateway where the world sees all of us and therefore, the red carpet laying for the tourist is the need of the hour. A law and order problem, one incident of rape in Delhi advertised world over is enough to cost us millions of dollars in terms of lower tourism."

Reactions to Arun Jaitley's statement first came from Twitter users. As tweets began to spread against the insensitive statement, the hashtags #BigMinisterSmallRape and #RapeSmall4BJP began to trend on Twitter India.

Here are some tweets expressing shock and disgust to Arun Jaitley's insensitive statement

#BigMinisterSmallRape Clearly Arun Jaitely is so endorsed in wealthy lifestyle that he has doesnt know about ground realities anymore. — Bhavesh Parkhe (@the_aam_indian) August 22, 2014

Didn't expect this at all from Mr @arunjaitley . Just give power to a person and the inner beast comes out. #RapeSmall4BJP — i_AM (@techie_aman) August 22, 2014

But there were some on Twitter who criticised the trend as an overreaction to the statement.

But what shocked people the most was that the statement had come from an articulate and erudite BJP leader like Arun Jaitley. He is considered to be politically correct and hailed as one of the best speakers among the current parliamentarians.

Meanwhile, Jaitley issued a "clarification" on the statement. His exact words were, "I was not referring to any particular incident" and "regret that my words were construed as insensitive".

(AW: Pratima Tigga)