The Delhi gangrape case is being handled in the
similar mode with similar intent reducing it to the impact level of a localized
issue. Every measure being talked about is Delhi-specific. There have been many
gangrape cases after the Delhi
gangrape on December 16. They have been reported from cities from across the
India - Guwahati, Muzaffarnagar, Jaipur, Shamli, Bharuch, Mahasamund,
Tuticorin, Siliguri, Saharsha, Rampur, Sitapur – (add to them some more cases
from metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata).
But have we heard growing voices on
implementing the similar measures like Delhi
in these cities?
NO!
Cases that stir the whole nation
or a large segment of it are the potential flickers that can set a remedy
process in action. The beginning is already there, the standalone cases tell
us. But the need to bring a positive change on the larger scale of mindset and
hence in governance needs a chain reaction where one such standalone case
simultaneously prompts demand for action and reform in different other cases.
Why can’t the policymakers
implement security measures like increased frequency of public transportation,
public display of the identification proof of the personnel manning them,
active women helpline in every city, special courts and day-to-day hearing in
every rape case throughout the country as they are promising for Delhi now?
Whenever a rape case like the
Delhi gangrape gets wider coverage, we see some action on ground by the
protesters and a hyperactive media but an insolvent and lip-servicing political
class reduces the scope of the issue rendering it a localized one and the
protests either die in some days or no one cares about the follow-up of what
was promised.
The way politicians are dealing
with the Delhi
gangrape protests tells us the same aspect. They had almost four days in the
winter session of the Parliament to enact a law with tougher penal action but
they didn't do it. The government is refusing to hold a special session of the
Parliament to amend the law. Rather it is busy in forcefully suppressing the
young protesters resorting to the silly sounding means like shutting Delhi
Metro stations or imposing Section 144 in certain parts of Delhi .
Mr. Manmohan and Mr. Shinde, they
are your very own people who have voted thrice for your party in the Delhi assembly elections.
On a wider canvas, it is not
about the death sentence. It is about rationalizing the legal course in cases
of rape and introducing intimidating penal action keeping in mind the victim
and not the accused. Anything that intimidates must be introduced now and the
greater emphasis should be put on the implementation factor.
And, it is not just about Delhi . It has not to be. Localizing
an issue of national significance, this shortcut approach has always dented any
possibility of change that any of the public movement had created.
This time, too, we seemed to have
missed the bus.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
