Patna: Bihar’s minister for arts, culture and youth affairs, Binay Bihari, on Monday sparked a minor furore in the Assembly with his statement linking the rise in the number of incidents of rapes with the presence of smartphones with girls.

“Smartphones in the hands of young people, especially girls, has caused more problems than it has solved. Smartphones have led to a rise in the incidents of rape,” said Bihari.

His statement attracted severe protests from women MLAs cutting across party lines while many male MLAs were heard supporting it.

Bihari, a first-time minister who was inducted into the Jitan Ram Manjhi government in July’s cabinet expansion, however, said he did not mean girls were responsible for the rapes. His statement, however, was apparently viewed by many women MLAs to mean so. Post-lunch proceedings in the Assembly witnessed uproar over Bihari’s comments, prompting a number of women legislators to protest it as wrong-headed analysis of a social problem.

“The process of love has got a boost due to the availability of mobile phones. Rapes have also increased due to mobile phones in the hands of young girls. Sometimes wrong numbers dialled by mistake bring about relationships between boys and girls and pose problems,” said Sarfaraz Alam, the ruling JD(U) MLA from Jokihat, supporting the minister’s statements.