India's new PM Modi slams rape shame, communal violence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned a spate of rapes as a source of shame for India and urged an end to communal violence Friday as he vowed to improve the lives of the nation's poor in his first Independence Day speech.
      
Modi, the son of a tea vendor who won a landslide election in May, also delivered a withering assessment of the ruling establishment from the ramparts of New Delhi's 17th century Red Fort.
      
While insisting India had much to be proud of, Modi addressed sometimes taboo subjects such as sexual violence, religious unrest, farmer suicides and a lack of toilets which he said was intolerable in the 21st century.
      
The right-wing Hindu nationalist also restated his solidarity with the wider South Asian region but held back from mentioning India's great rival Pakistan which is also celebrating its independence 68 years ago.
      
"We have to improve our national character and we have to put selfish thinking to one side," said the 63-year-old who steered his Bharatiya Janata Party to a first parliamentary majority for three decades.
      
In one of the most eye-catching passages of a 45-minute speech, Modi said that the levels of rape had shamed India, and he urged parents to take responsibility for the behaviour of their sons rather than put the onus on their daughters.
      
"When we hear about these rapes our heads hang in shame," Modi said.
      
"The law will take its own course but as a society every parent has a responsibility to teach their sons the difference between right and wrong."       

Anger among Indians over sexual violence has been steadily rising in the last two years, fuelled by a series of high-profile...