It took me a while to title this piece, not because it was a difficult one, but only because there were a lot of different expressions going through my head to describe this current state of numbness I have been experiencing after reading about the monstrous acts committed by these sexual deviants on an eight-year-old. An innocent child was abused to death just to hit a particular community where it would hurt the most. Words like ‘disturbing’ and ‘disheartening’ are way too modest to be used here.Don’t you think?
Should I be ashamed of being an Indian?
Things hit a new low when the gang rape of an eight-year-old in Kathua was brought to the notice of the world. What was more shameful is that people of the ruling party held a rally in support of the rapists and lawyers tried to interfere with the media reporting. Moreover, the victim’s lawyer was provided security by the court because her life was in danger. Yes, a woman’s life is in danger because she is fighting the case for an eight-year-old’s rape and murder. Let that sink in for a while.
The involvement of police in committing this crime makes it more pathetic as those who are supposed to protect us have become the perpetrators. How foreign have the words justice and truth become in our country? Why does the parent of an eight-year-old has more worries about the chastity of his/her child when she returns home while they should be worrying over her score in a Math Test?
What is more disturbing about this whole incident and fills me with abhorrence are the people who are justifying this monstrous act using religion as their scapegoat. Seeing people celebrate their democracy by raising their voice in supporting these mongrels without the least bit of human decency is what truly makes me lose all my hope in this country.
In 2012, there was a massive uprising after the gang rape of a medical student dubbed as ‘Nirbhaya’ and it led to a new set of tough anti-rape laws. Unfortunately, the things we thought will change have not changed at all. Not the politicians, and not even the people. As time passes by, names of the victims and the perpetrators all merge into one in my head and are turning quite foggy because it doesn’t matter to the perpetrators and to the government if you are Geeta, Jyoti or Asifa; if you are eight, eighteen, twenty-eight or eighty; if you are wearing a miniskirt, choodidar or a saree; or if you are a Hindu, Christian or Muslim, for all our country has to offer are excuses and reasons for their inability to deliver justice. Even if the victims somehow show the courage and break free from their shells to fight with the last remains of hope they have in the power of judiciary, the perpetrators find some loophole or the other and get off scot-free.
Answer this – Why do we blame the victim and shame him/her for provoking the predators? The comment you make about the victims and their choices might be an ordinary remark to you but this light-hearted attitude of yours remains the potent reason behind the growth of ‘victim-shaming’ mentality that is well rooted within the hearts of people. This attitude, well nestled within the hearts and minds, suppresses the will of a rape victim to come forward and plead for their case.
If you are a parent, a teacher, a student or even a senior citizen, all I want you to understand today is that those monsters might have been the perpetrators of those inhumane crimes but you living in the comforts of your home, paying no heed to the victim’s plea and encouraging this ‘victim-shaming’ attitude are absolutely equally responsible for the failure of this deliverance of justice in our country. Today as I come across yet another disturbing news article about a child victim of mutilation and rape in some other city, I wonder if the people who commit crimes against children are the worst sinners of all? But then how great of a sinner are we to let these sinners go unpunished? This is why with each dawn, the fire of patriotism which once burned vigorously in my heart is slowly getting extinguished by the winds of lawlessness, corruption and religious plutocracies blowing steadily in our country.
When you live in your own country in fear, you know that democracy has died and today as we come to realize that no women, not even children are safe from the brutalities of machoistic vermins that run rampant in this nation, you ought to know this too, that it was right there that my pride of being an Indian died a shameful death. A question pops up in my mind – Should I be ashamed of being an Indian? And should you be too?