One incident, one thousand opinions

There is a saying in Malayalam that 'even if the mother is slapped, there are two views'. There have been several opinions going around the rape that took place in Delhi and the protests it sparked off. The facts are that the woman deserves justice, I hope she recovers and the perpetrators are punished and all of these happen soon. It is also obvious that women in our world are treated as inferior to men and this attitude must change, which is not possible through legislation but can happen only through women empowerment, independence and respecting women- a change that all of us must embrace.

I would like to dwell on some of the views that have been expressed. Internet and avenues like blogs have meant that everyone has their own opinion and unique insight into every event and can express them, but I cannot fail to mention the fact that internet also gives vent to a large amount of passionate, one-sided and ill considered stupidity. The sort of comments that appear at the end of each newspaper article and the personal attacks on the author suggest a good measure of intellectual poverty that causes the individual to swear, insult or personally attack the author. Internet is only a medium- it can transmit good as well as bad, bigotry as well tolerance, stupidity as well as wisdom! I have tried to be free of these blinding emotions as I write this, but writing without passion could perhaps be like sex without love.

I noticed a view going round that it is because the victim of the rape hailed from the middle class in Delhi the protests have been so vocal and evident and that such crimes occur all over the country without any attention and fail to evince any amount of protest. I must admit this is true- Soni Suri, Women in Manipur and J&K, incidents in Rajasthan etc have not lead to any protests of the same scale. But does it mean the protests were unfair and illegal? Does it mean they were fighting only for the urban middle-class woman? I do not think so. This incident woke them up and brought them together, just like the death of one man brought together thousands to demand for regime change in Tunisia.

It is true that they did not specifically mention or call for justice to victims of alleged state sponsored rape that occur in many places and victims in remote parts of the country. But this is an opportunity to fight for stricter enforcement of laws, stricter legislation ("Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill" is still in the doldrums), faster trials and to sensitise police personnel to the mental trauma undergone by a victim and to treat them with respect rather than viewing them as the culprit. This is also an opportunity for us to combat not just rape, but the unequal status that women are subjected to in the country and to make it our priority to treat them with respect and even admiration, for all of us are the result of the pain, anxieties and sacrifices of a woman.

I also read this and since I cannot reply to the author directly, I am posting my reply here-

The protests of Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and the current one at Delhi came about not because citizens wanted the government to make concessions, but merely wanted an honest, responsive and effective government that could protect its citizens without robbing them. There was and still is corruption of mind-boggling proportions in our country, women are still treated unfairly and rapes do happen- these are facts, not allegations leveled to pull down the government. True, some amount of political self-serving happened at some of the protests, but if the government had acted before letting the situation deteriorate, we would not have had Baba Ramdev protesting on stage, we would not have had citizens digging in for over 2 days at Vijay Chowk and policemen and protestors injured unnecessarily. If protesting against a government that is failing in its duty is chaos and anarchy, it should be welcomed and it is the duty of a citizen as much as their right.

Mr.Khare also fails to understand that any protest that has a legitimate reason behind it will gather more support and if not addressed by the government in a civilised manner, it could grow violent and stronger. But it should definitely not be allowed to grow in a violent direction. But there is a difference between doing this by engaging with the protestors and just beating them off. But the crowd in Delhi were not just about castration or death penalty for rapists(there were definitely calls for this form of punishment) and definitely not about bringing down the government, but was a protest against a government that has failed half the population of our country. The people are smart enough to know it cannot be fixed quickly, but they also know not doing anything or mere tokenism will simply not do anymore.

Therefore, it is upto the government to do its job and to the people to protest and mobilise themselves if their government is failing the nation. It is then upto the government to rectify itself and talk to the people and protestors to tell them what they are going to do about it and earnestly go ahead with changing itself and working for the nation. But merely resorting to the power of the state against legitimate demands of the people and then lecturing about the need for order and rule of law is just a lame excuse to evade and escape true culpability.

In this current instance, the protestors were first met with water cannons, teargas and lathi charges. This only hardened their resolve to get an answer from the government and a cursory statement would not pacify a crowd that was punished for demanding justice. Along with a statement on what it was doing in the current case, government's stand and measures to improve safety for women, the government should have also explained the harsh steps it took to disperse the crowd rather than labelling the protest as a harbinger of anarchy and chaos.

I would like to add that the crowd did follow its emotions and the anger was definitely evident as some of the demands were not fully reasonable and well thought out. Calling for capital punishment and castration is clearly one step too far since none of these act as deterrents but will only serve as revenge- this is different from justice. We need to understand that in almost 90% of the rape cases, the perpetrators are known to the victim. What this means is that there will be tremendous pressure on the victim by family or friends to not file charges since a person they know will be send to the gallows. There is also the argument that since the perpetrator knows he will be sentenced to death anyway, it might be better to silence the victim- both are strong arguments against the death sentence.

But that does not negate the fact that the protestors did ask for timely justice- faster investigation, speedy trials and convictions. Promptly registering cases and investigations involving scientific methods and concluding the trials on time will mean not only that there is justice but also will change the feeling of impunity that men can get away with rape since the conviction rate is an abysmal 3%. This step will reduce rapes as well as provide justice to the victim. But this is a radical step and will require police reform and judicial reform, needed not only in rape cases, but also in our entire police force and judiciary.

The protestors should have also asked for more sensitive handling of the victim by the police as well as the medical staff, trained policewomen to register rape cases and meet the victim, treating the victim with respect and compassion and a rapid cure to the misconception held by many that women invite rape and their dressing has a lot to do with it. But what if rape is a state sponsored weapon used against its own people as in the red-corridor, north-east and J&K? Here too justice must be delivered if our nation must justify itself as the world's biggest democracy. More policing is required in certain areas, not in numbers but in their ability to respond to citizen who are under threat.

They also sought social change by questioning the way we view women as mere objects to be controlled and used. They asserted the independence of women and men did come out in support of these ideas- conveying a message that there are honest, decent men and we are with you- something the government failed to convey. If discrimination and threats women face right from the womb to the grave is to end, more than anything, it is our attitude that must change. Parents, teachers and society must teach our children that boys and girls are all equal and must respect each other.But before we can do that, we grown-ups must learn that lesson first and practice it in our lives.

Far off from the People

A little over two years ago, a street vendor in Tunisia named Mohamed Bouazizi protested against the municipal official and her aides who seized his wares, in the only way he could in a land that was being ruled by an autocrat for 23 years- he set himself on fire. The wave of protests that it sparked off lead to what has been dubbed as the 'Arab Spring'. In spite of the fact that it has not been fully successful in establishing democracies and answerable governments in the region, that single incident sparked off a series of protests and were met with heavy government force injuring and killing many- to be expected in an area filled with dictators who had been ruling these nations with an iron first for decades.

No one in their right minds would consider these protests as only about demanding a 'judicial inquiry' into the death of Mohamed Bouazizi or about punishing those responsible for his death. These protests were about justice for the entire society, Bouazizi became a symbol for the entire nation and especially for the youth who were struggling in Tunisia under the autocratic regime of Abidine Ben Ali. The protests were about freedom, against tyranny and the heavy hand of the state that could not be tolerated any more.

Last week, India too witnessed protests that were compared to the 'Tahrir Square' protests in Egypt. These protests held near the President's residence and close to the buildings of various Ministries and also the Parliament building demanded justice for not just one person, but for all women. Just like the protests in the Arab world, it was about changing the status quo and not just about one incident. It was not about capturing the criminals who assaulted a woman, but about justice for all our sisters, mothers, wives and daughters. The government failed to realise these truths and reacted in a manner that suggested it was out of touch with the people.

What was the need of a judicial enquiry when the police had already apprehended all the suspects? Why did the government not make any movement for two days and treat it as just a law and order problem when there is a fundamental right to protest? Why could not the President or the Prime Minister defuse the situation by making a clear and bold statement as soon as possible rather than the emotionless statement and banal appeals for calm that it released only two days after the protests? In fact, it beats common sense that at a time when the nation was united in outrage against a heinous crime (quite unlike previous protests which were against corruption in the government), the government did not seize the opportunity to stand with the people and understand their anger.

Even now,attempts are on in certain sections of the media to project that policemen were attacked killed by a violent mob. The protests were highly peaceful with only a few incidents of vandalism and stone-throwing, but most of these too were instigated by police lathi charges and teargas firing. Anyone questioning the protests, their intentions and political motivation has got a highly perverted moral compass since they were only asking for justice and not for resignation or arrest of any political figure. But just like in an autocracy, we have a government out of touch with the people that saw their genuine grievance as just a law and order threat which had to be quashed. Hence the teargas firing, lathi charges and closing down of metro stations. What we saw was the heavy hand of a state repressing an honest, sincere and people driven protest and the protests turned violent only because of the government's refusal to leave their ivory towers and engage with the people.

If the government was sincere and smart, it would have realised crowds that do not have a political affiliation and created by spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment, do not have a well-defined set of rules, demands and a clear leader. They protest not just about one specific incident, but about the horrors plaguing our country. The best way to deal with it, or rather face the situation is to actually listen to the people and understand what they are trying to say. Then come out and make a statement, not read out from a prepared script, that says I understand you, your grievances and we will work together to solve this issue and then putting those words into practice. But to do this, the government must be able to understand the people, not stay away from them while going to them only once in five years. I do not think we have such a government of the people, by the people and for the people, the government response to these protests prove just that.