Saturday, 7 June 2014

Badaun rape case - The mob factor

On evening of 26th of May, in a village in Badaun district, two teenaged girls were allegedly raped and hanged from the tree. Both of them went out to relieve themselves in fields as the locality donot have toilets. Heinous and medieval is the incident and perpetrators should be equally treated, death would be the easiest punishment in this case.
India erupted. Women, men came together in condemning this barbaric incident. Media ensured it gives enough coverage to move the nation. The women groups and feminists killed all men in debates on TV and blogs and social media. Whoever asked for the investigation to be over was shunted off the society. International community joined together and expressed the ever growing security concerns for women in India. Tourist communities cancelled their trips, 100's of officials were transferred in the state, people questioned PM's silence on the case when even UN's Ban Ki Moon had expressed his shock and criticism for the incident.
3 criminals have been arrested and everyone is wishing to get a chance to have those criminals on road where we can kill them into pulp. Such should be the punishment that nobody ever dares to do such thing.
Amidst all this, my heart wished somewhere in corner, this incident didnot happen. I couldn't see increase of further distrust in women for men, I couldn't see international criticism of India, I couldn't imagine the plight of few officers, who had to be transferred among the lot, who were probably honest and committed along their career but had to fall victim of the reaction of the incident.
And then suddenly the thought came to my mind - What if there was no rape? What if the teenaged girls went to meet the lovers and made up and were caught by parents and then hanged to death? (Apparently today , the seniormost police official of the state expressed a possibility of only one girl being raped and other as bystander. He proposed honour killing as one of the least possibility) The psychology of criminology would actually term it rarest that 3 rapists raped and then hanged two girls. The hanging of the victims is really suspicious and that too after hanging them the rapists went home and slept? They were apparently picked up and arrested from their homes next day.
Nonetheless, what if the least possibility comes true after investigation? We have all jumped on conclusion on the 27th May morning at the first glimpse of the TV news without leaving any chance for investigation. The MOB factor. The mob factor not only put pressure on the whole system but also influenced lots of irreversible undesirable actions on many lives and image of a country. The Nirbhaya case of Delhi has been splendidly handled by Indian Justice system and all the guilty has been punished to death. I wonder, if the mob factor will really resolve our issues with women's security. The mob only erupts when crime is heinous and shocking. But before reacting, establishing of the facts are equally important. The mob was less vociferous for honor killing cases where couples were killed by communities across the villages in Haryana.
Alright, so if this turns out to be a fake case, meaning if this turns out to be a honor killing, would the mob apologize to the alleged 3 criminals who probably would never be able to walk in public again, would Ban ki Moon revert his statement, would women trust a little more on men, would the social critics eat their words and the most important, would India be considered a little more safe than existing perception in International community?
But again..irrespective of what the actual story turns out to be, I am saddened to even think that 2 teenaged girls were HANGED from tree, irrespective of whatever happened before that. Barbaric and medieval to say the least...

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Literate Candle Marches vs Illiterate Jalsatyagraha

Something quietly happened in India in past week without much pomp and show (read media's undivided passionate attention). To demand the lowering of the dam level, peasants and small town activists and villagers did a protest by submerging themselves neck deep in the dam vicinity water. The Madhya Pradesh state Govt. agreed to their demand after 4-5 days for this protest. It didn't receive the fanfare from media as did the likes of "IAF denied flying Rahul" or "Akhilesh's decisions marred by his Dad & Uncles".

My attention caught something entirely different. I remembered the few hour long live telecast of the Candle Marches in protest of  Mumbai massacre, Anna Hazare's protest against corruption and many more in past 20 years of economic liberalization. What???? What does liberalization has to do with this???...and westernization...what does that has to do it protests in India?




...and this precisely caught my mind. Candles could be used for marches were never thought nor conceptualized in India prior to 90's. Thanks to the idiot box's global reach and the Harvard returnees who showed us the something

Well the ultimate thing is showing solidarity and support for a movement....candle march is very much equivalent to mass signature campaigns and more recently the "Likes" campaign on FB....but why are we shying away from a little more action which can be more impactful? Why are we embracing the easiest way out which other than getting media coverage doesn't yield any result?