BENGALURU: Amid the hype and haze of a saffron tsunami over the Ram temple inauguration, a small piece of news almost got pushed off the news smorgasbord -- that Bilkis Bano’s rapists had to march back to jail to serve the remainder of their sentence, no excuses entertained.
It was a massive victory for Bano, and in fact, for all women – caste, creed, community, complexion no bar. A victory that reposed our faith in the judiciary, and the sisterhood of women. A small band of firebrand women – former MP Mahua Moitra, journalist Revati Laul, lawyer Shobha Gupta, former IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar, politician Subhashini Ali and former professor Roop Rekha Verma -- threw their lot behind Bilkis Bano, to ensure that her ‘sanskari’ rapists were sent back to prison. And it was Karnataka’s Justice Nagarathna who was on the bench that ensured justice was done.
It is true that women can understand another’s pain and frustration, and the anguish in Bano’s eyes was there for all to see. No mother can erase the memory of her child being battered to death, and no daughter can forget her own mother being raped in front of her.
It is not easy to be Bilkis Bano, who took on the might of powerful governments and a system that contrived to crush her and make her struggle for some balm for her humiliation. It is not easy to stand up and fight for years, and watch rapists strutting around, cocking a snook at the law and courts, being welcomed like heroes with garlands and laddoos. How galling for them now that this chit of a girl (Bano was 21 in 2002), and from a minority community too, has been brave enough to bang on the doors of justice, again and again, with only hope and faith as her lodestars.
The mainstream electronic media, which operates at its raucous best on a daily basis, did not stop to give Bilkis Bano her small spot in the sun. Already on their knees and blinded by the dazzle of rulers on steroids, news anchors did not focus on the legal fraud that was being played out in courts. Our loud-mouthed women ministers, who generally have a lot to say, suddenly went silent.
It was left to the odd objective newspaper and website to uphold her case as a triumph over a retributive system that wants to mock the victim and reward criminals. A small minority in the media stood in support, and it was expressed in the form of a touching poem by journalist Tamal Saha, “Bilkis, you are not alone...”, applauding the hardy woman and inspiring hope.
(The writer’s views are her own)