Rape, murder highlight gender bias
DELHI: An 8-year-old girl was kidnapped, drugged and raped in a Hindu temple in Kathua, Kashmir, for a week, and brutally killed by a group of men.
Gang rapes are not unusual in India. In 2012, the brutality of a gang rape against a graphic designer, Nirbhaya, in a moving bus in the capital city, New Delhi, unleashed one of the biggest protests in the country against sexual violence.
Not only was the rape against the 8-year-old, who belonged to the nomadic Muslim community of Kashmir, even more heinous, but it was different from similar “incidents” – as Prime Minister Narendra Modi – after weeks of silence – chose to describe the act.
This rape in Kathua triggered international outrage, with even the secretary-general of the UN, Antonio Guterres, demanding punishment for the guilty. Modi, who is likely to face protests during his upcoming foreign travels, promised justice to India’s daughters, but his wishy-washy construct of the “incident” did not satisfy many.
The rape of this child was different because not only was it premeditated – it was planned for weeks – but also perpetrated and masterminded by those with links to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who were keen to drive Muslim nomads from their traditional grazing grounds. They were confident they would succeed as they had a favourable administration in their city and the state.
Though this rape and murder took place in January, the wheels of the probe moved slowly. If it hadn’t been for the doggedness and persistence of a couple of police officials of Jammu and Kashmir, the matter would have been passed off as an unexplained murder.
When the police filed the charge sheet in the case, India did not just wake up to the sick minds of the rapists, but also to those of the people who agitated in their favour.
Lawyers of the Jammu bar council were at the forefront of the demonstration to support the rapists. Two state ministers of the BJP, which is a partner in the state government, led the protest against the charge sheet.
The ministers were forced to resign from the government after the issue caused national outrage and embarrassed Modi’s government. One of them candidly admitted they took part in the protest only after being instructed to do so by their party leadership.
The moot question is: how could anyone support the perpetrators after chilling details of the victim’s captivity, rape and murder came out in the open?
She was kidnapped when she was out grazing her horses and first raped by a juvenile, who was co-opted into this conspiracy by his uncle.
Later, she was drugged and kept in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple under a plastic sheet and was repeatedly raped by all kinds of people – including a serving policeman. Later, her head was crushed by a rock and she died.
Bizarrely, the alleged rapists and murderers found extraordinary support in a society that seems split right at the centre.
Nursing a grievance against the minority community because of deliberate misreading of history and the policies of previous secular governments, the support for violence is bordering on irrationality.
The majoritarian zealots justify every act of violence as follows: “What about an incident that took place in history against them?”. This “whataboutery” has many vocal and strong proponents among those who are supporters of the prime minister.
They ridicule the protest against sexual violence by saying protesters were silent when a similar act took place against the Hindus of Kashmir, or somewhere else.
The candle march by Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Delhi’s India Gate was criticised by BJP leaders and their social media activists, who claimed the opposition leader was trying to politicise a criminal act.
This criticism of the anti-gender violence agitators proved to be inadequate, as reports began to occupy the headlines about another rape incident by a BJP legislator in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
This rape was not directed at the minority community, but brought to the fore the wanton disregard the party members had for the rule of law.
No police report was filed against the offending legislator months after the crime had been committed, despite the victim meeting the chief minister of the State, Yogi Adityanath, and petitioning the president of India.
Worse, the brother of the legislator allegedly beat the rape victim’s father to death. The deceased had, in a video recording, claimed he was beaten in front of the police, who did nothing.
Shockingly, the chief of the state police force addressed the accused rapist as “honourable” in a press briefing.
The alleged rapist legislator would have continued to roam freely had the State High Court not ordered his immediate arrest.
These recent incidents of violence and the protection that the accused have got from the police and the government have sullied the image of Modi, who had launched a programme against female infanticide called Beti bachao, beti padhao (protect your daughter and teach your daughter).
Now his critics are claiming he had presciently cautioned his countrymen they should protect their daughters from harm.
In some of the localities of northern India, residents have begun to put public notices outside their colonies asking BJP politicians not to visit them because women also live there.
A wave of protests has swept the country that endeavours to highlight the “anti-women” stance of the ruling party and its ideological mother ship, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, which wants women to only produce babies and work in the kitchen.
As the country heads to its national elections next year, if it is not brought forward, the issue of the safety of women could have the same impact as it had in 2014 after the Nirbhaya case, when the then ruling party lost.