Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Friday said rapists should be beaten up with their head upside down and the wounds sprinkled with salt and chilli.

Addressing an election rally in Agra, the firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said, "rapists have no space for pardon and should be dealt in this manner only".

As people applauded her, the minister said when this would be done to the rapists, they will plead for forgiveness and learn a lifetime's lesson.

Bharti added she was not worried about how the human rights group would react to her statement as she was of the firm belief that rapists deserved no sympathy.

The Union Minister also had some harsh words for Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Slamming Dimple for her silence over the gang rape of a mother and daughter on a highway in Uttar Pradesh, Bharti said the Kannauj MP was quiet then, but now she is campaigning for her husband and seeking votes for the Samajwadi Party.