In Agra, however, Sharma insisted that there is a difference between Indian and western cultures that makes “skimpy” clothing an inappropriate choice.

Nevertheless, he seems to have given some concession to foreign tourists. Last year, he had declared that Indian women shouldn’t at all go out in the nights. “Girls wanting a night out may be all right elsewhere but it is not part of Indian culture,” he said in September 2015.

Similarly, in October 2015, when an elderly man in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh was murdered by a mob for eating beef, Sharma had sought to play down the incident by citing the mob’s “restraint” in not harming the victim’s 17-year-old daughter.

Underlying Sharma’s latest remarks is the commonly-held assumption that revealing clothes provoke sexual harassment. However, as past incidents of violent assault and rape across the country have shown, short skirts are hardly to blame.

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