Analysis
Irresponsible and Insensitive
How does a sitting Member of Parliament and the son of the President of our country make an irresponsible and insensitive statement that the protesters assembled in India Gate over one of the worst type of criminal and sexual assaults in our country, were women all painted and decked up? The statement shows utter disregard for a crime of the vilest proportions. It also shows a canny disrespect towards the community of women especially in our country.
Instead of finding solutions to the present crisis, and assuaging the fear of the youth our politicians have treated this problem as a law and order problem. The protests are not lawlessness; the protests are an indelible stamp of anger at sexual and criminal misbehaviour. Moreover, the youth feel very insecure and also fear that their rights to individual liberty and freedom are being trampled upon. It is not a question of moral court or dress behaviour. It is a question of human dignity and survival in the midst of such dignity being trampled upon and violated in the worst manner, due to lawlessness of people. Moreover, the brutal callousness of the public over the incident as the lady and her friend lay in utter helplessness for three hours is also a cause for fear. If such incidents are repeated then who will come to the rescue of the victims?
And in the midst of such turmoil when the capital of the country is emersed in a civil war of sorts, we have a Member of Parliament making sly digs at the women community. He has to just look around and see what is happening in the country. Rape and molestation are the orders of the day. Around that time when this took place in Delhi, at least three incidents of rape and molestation took place in different parts of the country. Even now the reports are pouring in of such cases in places such as Mumbai and Punjab, the media covers this up exotically by calling them “alledged cases”. Everything is alledged; nothing is proved even when the victim commits suicide as in Punjab. In this incident it simply happens that it took place in Delhi, because of which the public of the country got more light on it. Otherwise, it would have receded into the background. The clever ploy of the media is to use words like alledgedly and then hide the facts. But this could not be done to the Delhi episode considering the animal behaviour of the criminals and the gross public misconduct of bystanders and the people around who must have seen the lady lying for hours.
Even as I write this the condition of the lady is critical and she has to be removed to Singapore for better treatment. Does not the venerable Member of Parliament know this? Does he not know that public sentiments have been aroused not only because of the rape but the brutality involved in dumping her by the road side and inflicting physical injuries of the worst kind? She has already had three operations, how many ordeals will she go through, or for that matter her family members. I have never seen such a despicable situation in my life, in the country where everyone is so deeply hurt and agitated at such atavistic human behaviour.
Simply an apology and retracting one’s statement and that too an irresponsible statement will not do. Also, the blame game of the politicians must stop, and the media must restrain sensationalizing the death of a police constable, by unravelling Yes and Nos, regarding his death. His death is equally unfortunate but we must understand that the public, especially the young, both men and women are terribly afraid and insecure.
28-Dec-2012
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Ananya S Guha
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