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Brian Fernandes | NewsKarnataka - Exclusive
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Mar 06, 2015
The student along with a male friend had, on the completion of her exams and before the start of her internship, gone to see a film, The Life of Pi. At 8.30pm they boarded an off-duty bus, with six men on board, five adults and a juvenile. The men beat the friend and each raped the woman in turn, before assaulting her viciously with an iron rod.
But the primary cause of the tumor is the diet – the mindset.
The mindset
Leslee Udwin, herself a sexual abuse victim at the age of 18, spoke to all concerned in the horrific incident for the film, including to one of the rapists, currently on death row.
She found that the rapists were ordinary, apparently normal and unremarkable men. What she found chilling however, was their mindset.
Udwin interviewed Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus, who described to her every detail of what happened during and after the incident. Singh showed no remorse. According to Udwin, Mukesh Singh kept expressing bewilderment that such a fuss was being made about this rape, “when everyone was at it”.
"A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he said. "Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good." People "had a right to teach them a lesson" he suggested - and he said the woman should have put up with it. “When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy," he said, and chillingly went on to say, "The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did. They will kill her”.
In the course of the 16 hours she interviewed him, she read out the long and shocking list of injuries the young woman had sustained, to him. He did not show even a glimmer of regret.
And the lawyers for the rapists – Chilling
Even more chilling is the mindset of the two lawyers who defended the murderers of the 23-year-old student.
"In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7:30 or 8:30 in the evening with any unknown person," said one of the lawyers, ML Sharma. "You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn't have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman."
The other lawyer, AP Singh, had said in a previous televised interview: "If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight."
He stood by that comment in the documentary.
Shocked – don’t be!
Shocking as it may seem, the underlying theme expressed by both the rapist and their lawyers has wide acceptance in India – it is part of the male mindset. Blaming women for rape is what hundreds of millions of men here are taught to believe for that’s what they will get if they, ‘don’t dress modestly, go out at night, go to bars and clubs, go out alone’.
Manohar Lal Khattar, the chief minister of Haryana no less, said last year, “If a girl is dressed decently, a boy will not look at her in the wrong way,” Khattar told reporters, “Freedom has to be limited. These short clothes are Western influences. Our country’s tradition asks girls to dress decently.”
After the moral police attacked women in a pub in 2009 in Mangaluru, the then Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa of the BJP said that he wanted to “end the culture of boys and girls roaming around in malls holding hands.”
Do you believe that women think differently? They too have imbibed this mindset, despite being politically correct on television. When a female journalist was shot dead in 2008 while driving home from work well past midnight, New Delhi’s chief minister, Sheila Dixit, partly blamed the victim. “All by herself till 3 am at night in a city where people believe...you know...you should not be so adventurous,” she told reporters
The convicted rapist learned only what he has heard leaders in his community and country say, said Jagmati Sangwan, a women’s rights activist who heads the All India Democratic Women’s Association. “This man is just following the example our leaders are setting for our young men,” she said.
Here is an additional sample of what our leaders have had to say, since the Nirbhaya incident in 2012.
“The victim is as guilty as her rapists. … She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop. Had she recited the Saraswati mantra, she would not have boarded any bus after watching a movie with her boyfriend.” – Spiritual leader and alleged rapist Asaram Bapu on the Delhi gang rape and murder reported in Firstpost.
Women are “equally responsible” for crimes committed against them. Women display their bodies and indulge in various obscene activities. Women are unaware of the kind of message [their actions] generate.” – Vibha Rao, chair of the Chhattisgarh State Women Commission.
“Women should not venture out with men who are not relatives. What is the need for roaming at night with men who are not relatives? This should be stopped. Such incidents [as the Delhi gang rape] happen due to influence of western culture,” DNA reported Samajwadi party MLA Abu Azmi on increased incidences of rapes in India.
“We should stop our girls from wearing jeans. We should pay more attention to where our girls are going. A mobile phone is like a disease. It should be banned. We should stop our girls from wearing jeans.” – Ranvir Singh, Haryana Khap Panchayat leader.
“Just because the country attained independence at midnight, is it proper for women moving at midnight? That particular woman [the Delhi rape victim] should have applied her mind before boarding the private bus. Anyway, it was a small incident.” – Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana on the Delhi gang rape.
“Rapes are on the rise because men and women interact with each other more freely now. Earlier if men and women would hold hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded, but now everything is so open,” Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal said. “It’s like an open market with open options.”
If women dress provocatively, then “rapes are not in the control of the police”. – Dinesh Reddy, police chief of Andhra Pradesh
A mindset that provokes a rape every two hours
One does not have to be a genius to observe that there is a glaring similarity in the averments of the rapist, the lawyers and our society's leaders - the people that all citizens look up to for guidance. It is this mindset in India, that has provoked a rape every 2 hours consistently over the last 13 years, despite the enhanced polcing, awareness and supposedly increased gender equality. A total of 2,72,844 cases were reported across 28 states and seven UTs in this period according to a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) analysis of reported rape cases between 2001 and 2013. Our parliamentarians, barring their screaming in the house and studios, have not improved matters any, it appears.
Judicial lethargy
In response to the 2012 attack and the widespread public protests it provoked, India’s government rushed through legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. But while laws can change quickly, mindsets and implementation in our chaotic justice system does not.
It’s been a little over two years since this horrific incident and a final judgment in the case is yet to be delivered. Of the six accused, the appeal of Mukesh Singh and three others against their death sentence is pending in the supreme court, while one of the accused, his brother Ram, died in prison and another is a juvenile. In comparison to 2012, convictions grew 30%, significantly acquittals too rose 19% in 2013. The Judicial system, despite the fast track courts set up to try wonen related cases is often slow to deliver justice for a variety of systemic reasons, that have yet to be addressed with the seriousness they deserve.
Justice delayed is justice denied and people are quickly losing their belief and hope in the justice system, especially in the case of heinous crimes.
In a recent case of public vigilantism, on Thursday, March 5th 2015, a man, accused of raping a girl, was beaten to death after being pulled out of a jail by a mob at Dimapur in Nagaland. The accused had allegedly raped the victim several times on February 23 and was arrested the following day following a complaint lodged by the victim.
A mass protest rally against the rape was held at Dimapur in the morning of the 5th. A crowd of nearly 10000 had gathered at the protest. The police were totally outnumbered and could not prevent the lynching.
Is this the shape of things to come?
Anu Aga, a prominent businesswoman and legislator said in Parliament the other day during the debate on banning the BBC documentary. “Every time a rape happens, the victim is blamed to have provoked the men. Let’s be aware of the view and not pretend all is well,” she said.
Women would best be served if we do that with all seriousness.
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