Ashwini, an 18-year-old, was publicly attacked outside her Chennai college, by Alagesan, and left to bleed to death with a slit throat. This appalling crime is all too reminiscent of the Chennai techie case, where young Swathi, an Infosys employee, was hacked to death by her stalker at the Nungambakkam railway station in 2016. A couple of decades ago, Sarika Shah, another Chennai college student, lost her life after she was manhandled. These are only the famous cases in one of the relatively safer metros in India that managed to capture the imagination of a fickle public. There are too many women out there whose lives have been snuffed out because then as well as now, too few give a crap.
There have been half-hearted attempts towards finding a solution to curb crime against women. We have advised ladies to remain tied to the home and hearth, urged them to dress ‘modestly’, used imaginative interpretations of chastity belts not limited to female genital mutilation, and brainwashed them into believing they must embrace virtue, virginity, sacrifice and self-denial to protect themselves, but all to no avail. Therefore, the path of least resistance has been taken and it is par for the course to blame and shame victims. The overriding impulse has been to frame a narrative where the victim’s character is besmirched and their killers are romaticised as tragic heroes whose crimes de passion have extenuating circumstances. After all, there are women involved and aren’t they all flighty, faithless floozies?
In Ashwini’s case, the moral police/moronic poltroon brigade have been preoccupied with the fact that she was in a relationship with Alagesan, before choosing to end it. The latter couldn’t get over it and had been harassing her ever since. She even filed a police complaint—not that it did any good. Yet, her killer is being portrayed as a sympathetic figure where as Ashwini is depicted as the heartless diva.
Which of course begs the question—So what? So what if a woman is a whore, a tease, a seductress, a temptress, a gold-digger and whatever filthy epithet that is usually hurled at her when she is a victim of rape, abuse or murder? It still does not give those of the masculine gender the right to kill or hurt us. It is that simple.
This time around, let us not take to social media to vent our righteous anger and frustration. What we need is not indignant rants but action—increased CCTV surveillance, well-trained cops and enforcers to patrol the streets and ensure that it is not so damnably easy for women to be abducted, raped, molested, set on fire, stabbed to death or have acid thrown on their faces. Stop exonerating the male of the species and making excuses for them, while always assuming it is the women who err. Finally, let us resolve to please do whatever it takes to make absolutely certain, that in the near future, we are not stuck in this cataclysmic loop, where girls get killed because boys can’t suck it up and take no for an answer.
anujamouli@gmail.com