We have suffered exceptional pangs of conscience in the past few days. The epidemic of rape just doesn’t seem to be following a downward curve. Preventive measures to curb heinous crime have failed miserably. Hardly a day passes without a report where a helpless victim is not only violated but is silenced in most barbaric fashion—burned alive, crushed in a staged accident or hacked to pieces. Those who escape this are thrown along with their family members in jail at the behest of powerful accused on patently trumped-up charges. Most of the victims belong to weaker sections of society, oppressed by caste-based discrimination, targeted by rich and powerful predators. But recent events have exposed an alarming trend. No one is safe on the streets after dark or in some places not even in broad daylight. The conscience refuses to be unburdened. Aren’t we all responsible for the horror unfolding before our eyes?
Every time, we let a politician escape unscathed with heartless comments like “boys will be boys”, we become abettors in crime. Same applies to inanities mouthed by custodians of ‘our’ culture and self-styled moral policemen, from ministers to Jurassic jurists who never cease pontificating about ‘provocative’ dresses that decent girls should shun or keep advising that women should stay within the four walls of their homes. They wonder what was the victim doing at that hour in that place? No one dares to ask these mentally challenged patriarchs to shut up! Once and forever. Our lips remain zipped and once again we can’t escape the charge of complicity.
There is constant chatter about the systemic failure, break down of the rule of law etc. as if we are outside the system—mere observers who are and can afford to remain detached for all time to come. A few compassionate noises and wringing of hands can’t absolve us of our culpability.
What, then, is to be done?
The ‘follow up in Hyderabad’ of the gruesome gangrape raises equally disturbing questions. To understand the grave implications of this bizarre incident, a review of the background is required.
If people lose faith in the legal system, the slide towards the precipice of Jungle Raj can’t be stopped. Mere suspicion is enough to extinguish an innocent life. Mob lynchings by vigilantes are nothing else but gangrape of the rule of law.
When politically protected perpetrators go unpunished, only tatters remain of the much-hyped majesty of law. What is frightening is that it wasn’t a blood thirsty mob that lynched the accused. It was men in uniform who gunned down the accused in the wee hours of the day in an encounter—we are told in ‘self-defence’. Investigators can’t appoint themselves extra-judicial executioners. The moment we hear the word encounter, the prefix ‘fake’ begins to resonate. There have been many high-profile cases of such encounters. Encounter specialists have been projected as larger-than-life daredevils who eliminate ‘dangerous animals’ who refuse to be tamed or reformed. Many of these heroes have been exposed as rogues. But we remain awestruck and tongue-tied.
No less a person than the Chief Justice of India has expressed serious concern about revenge as remedy for a crime. Others too have reminded us that while justice delayed is justice denied, justice hurried is justice buried. Many of the offenders are persons released on bail. Ever since Justice Krishna Iyer thundered ‘bail not jail’, we have unquestioningly accepted this as inviolable progressive humane jurisprudence. The bitter truth is that bail continues to be beyond the reach of the poor and the unlettered. Ironically, those who were crying loud against the lynch mobs, allegedly enjoying the patronage of our present rulers, now shout themselves hoarse exhorting people not to let those accused of rape escape. We know that public outrage can’t dictate the course of law and court judgments. But who can deny that hardly anyone trusts police investigations any more. Corruption and political interference have eroded the credibility of Indian criminal justice system. Inquiries are instituted and compensations announced. Our memory is short and the list of infuriating outrages is long.
The troubled conscience continues to prick painfully. We can’t have it both ways. Continue to chase the mirage of a humane liberal jurisprudence as beasts with teeth and claw tinged with blood of our kin continue to prowl, and hope against hope that some sharp-shooting saviour will take them out, or a crowd armed with sticks and stones will do the job.
( Pushpesh Pant is a former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and can be contacted at pushpeshpant@gmail.com )