A day after police quell rising anger with teargas and water cannons, PM calls for calm and promises justice for victim

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, called for calm on Monday in a televised public address a day after police used baton charges, water cannons and teargas to disperse crowds of demonstrators calling for stronger measures to combat the wave of sexual violence towards women in the country.

The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old in the capital, Delhi, has provoked widespread anger, focused largely on the police, politicians and senior officials, and has dominated news bulletins since the attack eight days ago.

The victim, a physiotherapy student who was returning home with a friend from a film in the south of the capital, is still in a critical condition. Six men have been arrested and face life imprisonment if convicted of any role in the assault, which took place over an hour on a bus travelling on main roads in the capital.

Singh, 80, admitted that there was "genuine and justified anger and anguish" but called on "all concerned citizens to maintain peace and calm".

"We will make all possible efforts to maintain safety of women in this country … [and] punishment to those who commit these monstrous crimes," he said.

There was some angry reaction to the inadvertant broadcast of Singh asking "thik hai?" ("was that ok?") after his final sentence.

A massive security operation has shut down much of Delhi with metro stations closed around the centre and police roadblocks keeping out all traffic. Local television broadcast images of ambulances carrying patients including children needing emergency treatment stuck in vast traffic jams. The venue for a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin was moved at the last minute.

With opposition politicians now increasingly outspoken, the issue is becoming a major problem for the beleaguered Congress party, which leads a coalition government, and has been unable to shake off claims of incompetence and being out of touch.

Singh and other Congress politicians, most of whom are elderly, have repeatedly struggled over recent years to communicate to the youthful population.

Many protesters have called for the death sentence to be imposed for rape.