Looking at the front page
photograph of a huge mass of humanity, mostly male, pressing against police
barricades at Raisina Hill, I can’t help but wonder how many women protesters were
groped and mauled in the melee that is being created over the Delhi gang-rape
incident. The crowd did not look like it was made up exclusively of socially
aware, conscientious, ethical young men and women. On the contrary, it looked
like the usual mishmash of opportunists, bystanders, watchers, and thrill seekers,
augmented by a bunch of “swept by emotion and caught up in the flow” kind of
crowd.
This has been the character of almost
all the recent “citizens’ movements” from Anna’s crowds to Ramdev’s pressure
cooker brigade, to this one. This is just another exercise in catharsis and
guilt assuaging by the middle class Indian. We know we are largely to blame for
the perpetuation of these social evils, and we feel vaguely bad about the fact,
and these “MOVEMENTS” give us the perfect opportunity to feel like we are
making a huge difference, which in turn relieves our guilty consciences. And yes,
there are the usual numbers of opportunists, from pickpockets to those seeking
cheap thrills from pinching bottoms. And this became super evident with the
violent turn the protests took. As long as the actual protestors were conducting
matters, everything was fine, and even when the police – unprovoked – opened up
with water cannons and tear gas, the protestors did not retaliate, and stopped
each other from reacting. However, pretty soon the more unsavoury parts of the
mob took over and full scale rioting began, with its usual side effects, the
looting, the mayhem.
While it feels great, and makes
us all glowy and warm to think of how the “average Indian” (whoever that might
be) takes so much interest in righting wrongs, demanding justice, and making
his/her voice heard. But is that what’s really going on? And are we asking for
the right things with this voice? Seems not, from where I stand. First of all,
we have seen this farce before. The sudden upsurge of anger, the marching on
the streets, the chanting, the slogans, and then the dissipating numbers, the disappearing
crowds, until the whole things fizzles out. Seems to me like the same pantomime
is being played out all over again. A couple of days, and then everything will
be back to the usual grind, everything forgotten.
As for the demands, they are
fairly ridiculous, and proof of how emotions, not thought, are calling the
shots here. Demanding the death penalty for a crime where the maximum allowed
penalty by law is seven years in jail, just shows the total absence of any understanding
of how crimes are punished. There is NO WAY that a court can LEGALLY award more
than the maximum penalty allowed, no matter how loud such a demand might be
from a bloodthirsty public. Even if the law is amended, as certain groups and
factions are demanding, it would still not apply to this case, which was
registered when the old law was in effect. Also, let us not forget the hugely
complicated and politically fraught process that needs to be gone through
before the law can be changed. It isn’t happening for so many MORE basic
things, it is highly unlikely it will happen here, and screaming is not going
to make it so.
Anyway… to any rational person
the answer to the problem is NOT awarding the death penalty in the “rarest of
rare” rape cases, but to properly enforce the current punishments. After all,
as the Apex court is already realizing, the “rarest of rare” definition leaves
the decision TOTALLY up to the presiding judge, with all his/her prejudices and
mental blocks. It is already being applied to randomly in cases of murder, how
much worse will it be when you bring in a highly contentious and inhibition
arousing matter like rape? Also, such a provision increases the tendency to let
most of the offenders go free. “If it wasn’t bad enough to deserve the maximum,
maybe it wasn’t so bad after all” is the usual rationale. It has been seen in
effect for so long in rape cases which have managed to get to court, for years.
Even with a seven year maximum, without any need to prove that it is “rarest of
rare”, hardly anyone gets any sentence, with the few who do hardly ever going
to jail for more than a year or two.
It is not likely that the judges who
won’t even send rapists to jail will suddenly start hanging them, left right and
center. An effective deterrent is never one that is heavy but never applied, it
is one that may be lighter, but is applied efficiently. If the police register
the cases without refusing to, if they stop further humiliating the victim with
sneers and lewd comments, if the investigating agencies actually begin to
investigate the cases lodged, instead of just making token efforts as a show or
completely shelving it, if the cases are tried fast, and effectively, and if
EVERY single rapist goes to jail for seven years, pretty soon no one will dare
commit the crime. No one wants to lose seven years of their life. Forget the
social environment we create that promotes rape, forget families that teach
NOTHING of value to their sons, forget the whole socio-economic-political roots
of the problem. Simply making it difficult to legally get away with rape will
bring the numbers down. As of now, a rapist knows as a certainly that he will
probably never be arrested. If he is arrested, he wont be prosecuted. If he is….by
some strange and horrible chance… actually prosecuted, he won’t go to jail at
all. If, horror of horrors, he IS sent t jail, which is a one in a 10,000 kind
of probability, it will be a virtual holiday at a lightly guarded, easy going,
jail, for MAYBE a couple of years.
Given this situation, it is
actually surprising that more women are not raped everyday, as they are molested.
After all, the punishment for both is the same… NOTHING. Just streamlining and
making the legal system will change all that. It will make sure more women come
forward to report the crime, and more cases are registered, and more cases
actually go to court, and more rapists are actually convicted, for a sizable duration.
THEN we will see real change. Screaming for a kill on the streets is NOT going
to achieve any of this.
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