AND THEY ARE SYMPTOMATIC OF THE INSENSITIVE POLITICAL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY
People had to take to the streets again. The public sphere
is evolving spontaneously. People are reacting spontaneously against atrocities,
again and again, post the anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare.
A 5-year old minor was raped and brutalized in Delhi, again. While
protests were raging, more cases of rape were reported. Statistics say rape is
the fastest growing crime in India.
True, it’s a mindset problem. But, than cannot absolve the
police and government of their own follies, of not being honest with their
responsibility, of not being sincere with their commitment, of not being human
enough to understand the pain of the fellow human who is being victimized.
A gangrape last year, on December 16, that took life of a
23-year old girl, named Nirbhaya by us, who fought with the rapists and
struggled with death for many days, stirred the humanity. Her fight, her
plight, crime against Indian women and the larger issue of women rights in India made the
whole world participate in the process of discussion.
But that was for the humanity, not for the Indian
politicians it seems. Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde, responsible for internal
security of the country and directly overseeing the administration of the Delhi
Police, and the administrative machinery like the Delhi Police run by the politicians
like Shinde, compel us to think so, again and again.
Criticised for comparing young protesters with Maoists in
the aftermath of the December Delhi 2012 gangrape, the home minister of India let his
lieutenant at the helms of the Delhi Police affairs have a free run despite
glaring lapses by the Delhi Police during and after the crime was perpetrated.
A police security lapse let the bus ply on the road when
it had previously robbed someone on the same stretch of the road on the same
day, in the same time-band. A police functionality lapse delayed the access to
the speedy treatment to the victim. A police functionality lapse denied the
victim the best possible treatment that was her right. These two lapses coupled
with Union and Delhi
governments’ delayed decision-making in shifting the victim to a renowned
hospital later proved fatal for her.
Shinde was as much responsible for it as was Mr. Neeraj
Kumar. But both remained unaffected and unmoved as if nothing had happened when
both needed to take moral and functional responsibilities for the lapses. They
both needed to have stepped down. Okay, proposing this might sound unusual in
the Indian political and bureaucratic set-up of the day but is this not the way
the healthy and progressive democracies are supposed to function?
What Shinde and Neeraj Kumar had done during the December
2012 gangrape and protests, they are doing it again.
Administration is slapping protesters, is shutting Delhi
Metro stations and is imposing Section 144 like it had one in December 2012. Neeraj
Kumar, who had compared human lives as collateral damage then, is lauding his
police force, a police force that tries to discourage the complainants, a
police force that slaps innocent protesters, a police force that frames
innocent youngsters for murder, a police force that offers bribe to the victim
to suppress the issue even if his daughter is raped and mortally wounded.
Even after all this, Mr. Kumar doesn’t bother to face the
nation and when he does so, after four days of the incident, he speaks in his
‘human lives as collateral damage’ style saying it is impossible to prevent all
the rape cases.
And Mr. Neeraj Kumar cannot say and do all this without
approval of his boss, Mr. Shinde.
And Mr. Shinde cannot allow all this to happen without
approval of his bosses, the power-centre duo of the United Progressive Alliance
government.
And it tells us India is not a healthy democracy
because it is us who have elected the likes of Shinde to run the System made
for us. We are failing again and again in electing our representatives.
But again, it is an increasing strength from among us that is
realizing this and is raising voices to warn the political and administrative
system. Increasing number of spontaneous protests on issues of social concerns
is a living example to it.
If the Indian democracy is still progressive, it is due to
the people who are accessing and processing information and are propagating it independently
for those who cannot (their living conditions) or who do not (comfortably
ignorant) understand the relevance of being and act informed.
Any democracy needs to perform the tasks that will make it
a just and fair society. But an overpopulated country, burdened with poverty,
illiteracy and medieval social thinking prevalent in its larger swathes, that India is, finds
it in a deadlock with an inept and corrupt political and bureaucratic class
lording over it; overloading over it.
True, society is to share the blame. Rape and other crimes
against women need the mindset change to address the issue. But we are a sick
society of millions. No one can say how and when the change would come. And at
the same time, we cannot allow them to happen shielding behind statements like ‘it
is humanely impossible to prevent rape cases where relatives, neighbours or
friends are involved’ as Neeraj Kumar said or statements like ‘such
incidents are reported from other parts of country also’ as Shinde said.
These logics do stand their ground. No one is questioning
that. But what about the action in the aftermath; an action (and an action
needed every time) that sets a precedent, that works as a deterrent, not
just for the criminals but also for the erring officials and the politicians of
the administration and the political system, an action (every time) that remains to be seen.
There were big talks after the massive protests against
the December 2012 Delhi
gangrape promising speedy justice setting deadlines like one month or two
months. But it is over five months now and the final verdict is nowhere in
sight. No one is even talking about it now.
A rule of law and order based on democratic values becomes
the only hope in such a dark underbelly of human delinquency.
But what if the people tasked to handle the law and order
machinery on democratic values start using it to subvert the democratic values?
That is exactly what is happening in India. What else can we say and
should we say?
We are left with nothing else but this to say when the
governments don’t find the incidents like the December 2012 Delhi gangrape or
now the Gudiya gangrape or the police cover-up attempts in such cases or the
subsequent multifold rise in the rape cases in the same city even after the big curative
promises were made reasons enough to take curative steps.
Mr. Manmohan Singh, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Rahul Gandhi
(this time too, you are yet to speak on it), Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde and
Mr. Neeraj Kumar – if your governance and you administration cannot stop the
rape, then who will?
See! We elect them to help us. WHY?