I read about what the rapists said in the documentary, ‘India’s Daughter’ a few days ago in one of the leading news websites. Being a writer, the first thought after reading this should have been just ‘writing’ about it. However the first thought that came in my mind was, ‘I wish our Judicial and the non-judicial government, and especially our PM (who promised women’s safety before the elections) read this. I wish they too feel as much outraged as I am feeling now after knowing that this sick monster is still alive with this rotten mentality.’
My first wish was granted. The news did come to the notice of each one of them. And my second wish too was granted. They do feel agitated! But! Not on the fact that Mukesh Singh, a prime accused of Nirbhaya rape case was alive to give his shit views to the world, but on the fact that a British film maker had the guts to show us the mirror through this documentary. When our honorable home minister was trying his best to ban the documentary, I could see a fatherly figure in him. No! Not today’s father who supports his daughter to come out and fight with injustice, but the ancient Indian father who knows that his daughter has been raped but says, “Hush! Hush! Log kya kahenge? Hamare ghar koi nahi aayega agar tum ye sabko bata dogi…so Hush!! Hush!!”
Well! I am no one to decide whether the documentary should be banned or not. Yes, it shows the mindset that leads these men to rape. It somehow justifies through a psychiatrist that it’s more to do with the brought up of such people. But it also shows the two defense lawyers speaking the same language as the culprits and does not even justify their views through a psychiatrist. So what do we do about such a well brought up, well cultured and well educated people of our society? I know a lot of educated men who blame girls for getting raped or at least think that women are made to do just household work or men are definitely stronger than women and women should accept this fact either by choice or by force. I find them more threatening than the ones in the jail. Shouldn’t we ban them first?
It’s been two years that these rapists are in jail. I hope the Supreme Court retains the judgments of the lower courts to hang them. There are 31000 rape cases pending in the lower court as of now and I am sure not every case will be treated as a ‘rarest of the rare’ and not every convict will be given a death sentence. The maximum they would get will be a lifetime imprisonment. But will this change anything? If Mukesh Singh, after spending two years in the jail is not repenting what he did, if his defense lawyers are making it even worse by supporting his views on teaching a lesson to the girls who dare to cross the boundaries set by men like them, then what is the use of the punishment?
The documentary shows a part of Nirbhaya which we all were unaware of. Once a child snatched her purse and ran away. When the police caught him and started beating him, Nirbhaya stopped the police and asked the child why he did that. The child answered that he too wanted to have a burger and wear good clothes. Nirbhaya got him all these things and then took a promise from him that he would never steal again. I wish this part of the documentary was shown to our Judiciary. If the culprit is not affected from within by the punishment he is getting then there is no meaning to such punishments.
Mukesh Singh agrees again and again in the documentary that the juvenile involved in the act was one of the most active one in the crime. He was the one who asked the couple to get into the bus. He was the one who raped. He was the one who threw Nirbhaya’s intestines out of the bus. He was the one who washed the blood stained bus. The juvenile was 17 years and 6 months old when he did this crime. That means he was just 6 months away from the death sentence. However, those six months awarded him just three years of luxurious stay in a correction home. According to a report by IANS , this juvenile who has been given the levy of even hiding his name from the world, has not shown any improvements, rather he threats the welfare officers at the correction home that he will complain about them to the magistrate if they don’t listen to any of his demands. As he knows that he cannot be harmed at the correction home, he has become more imprudent.
“We have tried many times to make him realize his crime. We have been counseling him. But he has not shown any remorse,” One of the officers has told IANS.
This proves that this juvenile too shares the same views as the older ones. And thanks to our judiciary that he will be free again in December 2015 to teach more such mannerism lessons to the next girl he sees wearing a short skirt or going out late night.
The documentary has definitely gone into the depth of showing the reasons behind such crimes. It shows how ‘difficult childhood’ can lead to a ‘criminal adulthood’. However, somehow it fails to show that this reason is not at all justified. That there are thousands of other examples in our country wherein a person has proved to be a gem even after getting through a difficult childhood.
The one part that is really motivating in ‘India’s Daughter’ is the fight that India’s youth fought for the rights of this daughter. This shows that together we can bring the change! We should not be ashamed when India is called the rape capital, rather we should be proud of it. We need to understand that we are called the rape capital not because more rapes happen here, but because the conviction rate is much higher in India compared to the other so called developed countries.
But the strong message that the documentary wanted to give through the views of the rapist was that ‘THESE ARE THE VIEWS OF A RAPIST, AN INHUMAN AND ANYBODY WHO SHARES SIMILAR VIEWS IS AN INHUMAN AND WILL LAND TO THE SAME PLACE WHERE THIS RAPIST IS RIGHT NOW”
