DEAD

The poor girl died and left for her heavenly abode…my heart cries whenever I think about the ordeal she went through, and also about the ordeal her mother and father are going through every day, and will continue to go through the rest of their lives. Their sweet little innocent daughter who they cuddled and nurtured and brought up with tender love and care, not only snatched from their lives so abruptly at such an early stage, but having been subjected to such abhorrent acts leading to her death that even seeing her in the hospital, the parents and family would have died a thousand deaths at every sight. They will continue to be tormented by the memories of these life changing events, the heart ache of the memory of their sweet child, and the frustration of seeing the perpetrators being disbursed less than proportionate judgement in an excessively laggard pace.

But as we do, whenever these things happen, we Indians as a nation are up in arms, because we have a new cause to espouse, a new reason to assemble and protest, and a new agenda against the incumbent government. There are all kinds of wild ideas and thoughts being thrown about as to what should be done and who should be blamed, albeit no action or clarity which emerges. This will go on until it gets old, like it happened with the Godhra Riots, with the anti-corruption campaign, with the attacks of 26/11. The only difference is that with the onset of social media everyone is able to voice their views much more efficaciously and vehemently. Why should I be left out then?

Here is what I feel should be done and not done about it…and more importantly who should be blamed!!!

1. LEGISLATING – I am not sympathetic to the incumbent government or to any other party for that matter. But I do believe that there is only so much that a government can do. They can legislate and provide for stricter punishments for crimes against women, including death sentence in case of rape. But merely having a law does not in itself fulfil the purpose of a deterrent. We would be fooling ourselves if we let ourselves believe that the monsters in the bus would not have done what they did if the Indian Penal Code provided that the punishment for their crime would be death as opposed to imprisonment. Hell, I don’t think they or any of the other criminals bother to check what the punishment is before they engage in the crime. This is not to say that the laws should not be amended, they most certainly should and the strictest of sentences be imposed for crimes of this nature. My point only is that the public should not be labouring under the false notion that this in itself will bring about a sea change and their daughters and wives will be able to roam the city streets freely once the law is amended.

2. ENFORCEMENT – There is something to be said about the enforcement of law and order. None of us would defend the nature of policing in Delhi or any other city in the country for that matter. It certainly needs a lot of improvement. But I fail to appreciate how this will be achieved overnight or more importantly, how this will in itself prevent the occurrence of crimes similar to the crime in question. In the instant case the offenders were not repeat offenders who the law enforcers let slip from their fingers. The crime was perpetrated in a moving bus, with little chance of detection by persons who would never be under surveillance of the law enforcers on any given day. The perpetrators may as well have taken the victim to one of their homes instead of carrying on in the bus. I do not think the police could have done anything to stop the crime as it occurred. And the corollary is that it can surely occur again. If tomorrow some other men go rogue and decide to throw all humanity out of the window, there will be plenty of avenues for them to carry out their inhuman designs. This remains true not only for India but also any of the other countries in the world…a recent incident in none other than US of A (which boasts one of the best law enforcements) comes to mind. So the short point is that law enforcement can help to bring perpetrators to book, but certainly can’t ensure that the crimes do not occur in the first place. What can help prevent these to some extent is a change in our value system, better education and due regard for women, our making an effort and doing something every time a woman is disrespected in our presence, and most importantly a change in every man’s perception.

3. MOB LYNCHING – For anyone who really wants to achieve change and get results…take inspiration from the Tihar jail inmates, and instead of protesting in front of the parliament, or lighting candles, or tweeting about things, get together in a mob and finish the perpetrators in an old fashioned mob lynching. That would be true redressal to the situation and would be a huge relief to the family who will find that the people who did this to their daughter have finally met their end, an equally or more brutal one at that. However what stops us from doing that, other than our inherent colours of self-preservation and cowardice, is that we live in a country which has rule of law. Someone accused of a crime is to be prosecuted, tried and sentenced upon being proven guilty, by a court of law. It is not for the public or even the Government to suo moto punish anyone they wish to. That in itself is cause for anguish as well as joy. Anguish because we see people like Ajmal Kasab living out their lives in front of our eyes and be punished belatedly and we will see the perpetrators in the instant case also have a prolonged battle through the justice system. Joy because if we were living in a country where the Government could prosecute and punish anyone at free will, without rule of law, we would certainly degenerate into a dictatorial dispensation with its associated evils as has been seen in countries such as Libya and Iraq. So I guess where that leaves us is that if you can do a mob lynching, go ahead, else don’t waste your time preaching, protesting, and soliciting others to participate in futile exercises such as changing their profile picture, or not celebrating, or boycotting a particular day.

4. JUSTICE – The main area where I feel something of material impact can be done, and must be done, is the judiciary. Our judiciary is the worst of the offenders. A judiciary which takes years to bring Ajmal Kasab to death, years and couple of attempts to bring Jessica Lal’s murderer to justice, and decades in other innumerable cases. If anyone really has a penchant for protesting, they need to camp outside the courts and not the parliament. The laws are already in place, the perpetrators have been caught, the evidence clinching. All that remains is for justice to be served. In fact the criminal procedure provides for a Magistrate to take cognizance of an offence suo moto or even on a complaint by any good Samaritan and fast track a trial. Given the compelling evidence and lack of credible defence, a willing judge would be able to bring the matter to a conclusion within a matter of weeks, not months, not years!!! However the judiciary remains the only body in our country which lacks all accountability. They are ‘our lords’, they will enjoy 3 months vacations in the year, even though these vacations were instituted for British judges to go back home during British rule when the court system was put in place. Our lords will live with a backlog of cases running into years and yet not compromise on their vacations, even though rest of India works all year around. Without detracting from the instant case, one cannot lose sight of the fact that there are thousands of other women victims who are along with their families waiting for justice to be served against the men who have violated them…they lie in wait not because the perpetrators have not been apprehended, but because our judiciary is tardy.

So in conclusion, anyone who wants to really make a difference can go up in arms and kill the bastards, or can petition the judiciary to do the same thing under rule of law, on an expedient basis. Everything else will only be ways for blowing off steam, participating in the social media hulabaloo and feeling a sense of pride in having registered your protest, but won’t deliver any result, nor make any difference in the lives of the victim’s struggling family.

But regardless of whether you do something in the instant matter or not, do try and imbibe in yourself and your children, a respect for women in and around you, for they are the mothers, wives and sisters and daughters, they are who bring a semblance of love to humanity and they are the origin and lifeblood of all men.

©2012 Anshuman Khanna (www.anshumankhanna.in)