It was a chilly December morning in the year 2012, when Delhi and the entire India woke up to the torturous news headlines of a gruesome gang-rape. As the details of the crime emerged, one could not help but cringe and shudder at the thought of what the young woman had to go through in the hands of five perpetrators, who committed the crime in a moving bus, and left the brutalized victim on a deserted roadside.
The uproar was unanimous. The police, media, and common men and women stood together to seek justice and vindicate the cause of a promising life lost to a ruthless and senseless crime. It seemed like the dawn of an era, where crime against a woman’s dignity would finally receive attention and justice would be met. But with passing years, the court room drama, the tedious judicial process, and the pervasive patriarchy in place, it seemed a vague possibility that the culprits would ever meet their justified end. Nirbhaya’s family could eventually find some closure with the conviction of four culprits but society at large was dismayed how long it took to convict them and how conveniently the fifth accused got away with the crime, being a juvenile.
Over the years, while the brutal sexual assaults have been rising, some highly misogynistic ideologies are also gaining momentum that blurs the difference between the victim and the victimizer. Claims such as ‘rapes only occur in cities and not in villages’, a statement made by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in 2013 and many succeeding remarks by the right wing groups and lawmakers, shifts the blame of a heinous crime on a woman’s attitude or attire rather than the lecherous, predatory, and chauvinistic male mindset of violating another person’s body and soul.
Going by the logic of how rape is an outcome of a woman’s ‘conduct’ that leads to provocation rather than the intention to commit a crime, other unlawful acts like theft, fraud, murder, etc., would also be justifiable.
It is 2020 and there is yet again a brutal gang-rape where the victim has eventually succumbed to injuries. It is not a case in isolation, though what makes it extremely horrific is the fact that instead of expediting justice to the aggrieved there is a conscious attempt by the state government to cover up the crime. Today, we are a divided, fractured nation, witnessing horror and misery of unprecedented proportions as a norm. It is just not rape, lynching, and heinous murders happening in the country, but the crimes have overtones of hatred along the lines of gender, community, and caste that make them spine chilling. Could we as nation be more perverse and self-destructive?
The latest report released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) based on last year’s crime record reveals that every 16 minutes a woman is raped in India. Much like the frequency of the crimes committed against women, sermons laden with misogyny are spewed in the public domain by law makers of the country that warn the likely victims to conduct themselves if they wish to remain safe. Strangely, for these upholders of societal morality, women are also responsible for producing bad progenies and thus ‘they should either produce good children or remain infertile’.
Of late, rape has become a ploy of patriarchy to rein women voices of reason and dissent against injustice and authoritarian governance. Faceless and surreptitious identities on social media use rape to threaten, subjugate, and humiliate not only common women but even seasoned professionals and celebrities. Whether it is a female journalist Sagarika Ghose delivering her journalistic duties; Kavita Krishnan a prominent women’s activist answering online questions on violence against women; or actress Rhea Chakraborty facing probe in Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the threats of rape, gang-rape, and sexual abuse meted out to each sounds unequivocally similar. It seems like no matter what the grudge these people hold against the women, the only incrimination befitting their action is rape. That underlines the pervert mindset of the individuals who cannot think of subjugating females in any other way. Still legislatures like the BJP MLA Surendra Singh who represents the Bairia constituency of Uttar Pradesh say, that the rape cases would cease if people instill ‘sanskar’ (morality) in their daughters. What an ironic statement it is, because reality as it stares in the face, is quite the opposite. It is high time to teach astray men a lesson or two in morality.
If the misogynistic mindset serves an ideal ground for heinous crimes like rape to exist in society, the caste ridden societal structure provides another layer of injustice and oppression. Hathras rape and murder case has overtones of both. It is a typical case of the powerless pitted against a system equally suppressive where a 19- year-old girl is brutally gang-raped, attacked, and left to die in an open field in broad daylight. The role of the police in delaying to register the complaint, in collecting the viscera samples 11 days after the assault for forensic investigation, and in cremating the deceased without the presence of the family members and much against their will (cremating at night is also religiously unacceptable) makes them equally complicit of the crime.
As the case stands for now, the Uttar Pradesh police has filed 21 FIRs and is investigating alleged attempts of disturbing peace in the state through sedition, conspiracy, and promoting religious hatred. Sadly, none of these cases are filed to bring the rape accused to book. With mounting political pressure the case of the actual crime is recommended to be handed over to the CBI, noticeably, sans evidence and cooperation from the local police and administration. Meanwhile, even with the prohibitory order like Section 144 in place, hundreds of men from the upper class community are holding meeting to support the accused claiming their innocence.
It will not be long to hear an alternate narrative of the truth that would blur the difference between the victim and the victimizer. Then, the victim’s last statement of how the horror unfolded would conveniently vanish much like the physical evidence her brutalized body and belongings that shrieked of the crime were burnt by the police. Alas, the vital question remains unanswered, if justice stands a chance in today’s India?