New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said that the government's move not to consider marital rape as a crime is disappointing as violence within a marriage is equally condemnable as outside it.

"I think this is a very disappointing reply by the government, what they are overlooking is that rape is not a matter of sex, it is a matter of violence. It is a matter of forced violence upon a woman which is equally condemnable if it happens within a marriage," said Tharoor.

"This is not a question of culture, this is not a question of sexual relations. It's a question of whether we are going to allow anybody to abuse any other citizen merely on grounds that he is married to her," he added.

The government had yesterday said that the concept of marital rape cannot be applied in India as marriage is treated as a sacrament or sacred as per mindset of the Indian society.

"It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors, including level of education, illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament," Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said while replying to a written question of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi in Rajya Sabha.

The DMK leader had through a question submitted in the Rajya Sabha asked whether the government would bring in an amending bill to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to remove the exception of marital rape from the definition of rape in the light of the U.N. agencies' findings and recommendations.