Justice – Far or Absent

The Indian Government is planning on a dealth penalty for raping someone below the age of 12. So, does that mean that rape above that age is less punishable and somehow justifiable? The very fact that we are discussing about this shows how regressive our thought process is and how slow justice and judgement are. And sense…well that is a very far fetched concept currently. Picking up the newspaper and mustering up the courage to read it is an applaud worthy task in itself these days, who knows the first news I read might be of an infant abused. So the days that I do feel like reading, I pick up the side newspapers like Delhi Times or HT City, just to save myself from the humiliation of being a citizen of such a country where abusers roam free and the victims/survivors are blamed. But the MeToo movement has brought forward so many incidents of celebrities being abused and molested or being asked for compromises. Everywhere I read, I find what I dread.

But unfortunately, no one can remain sheltered from the big news that strike us, you see, we all have apps installed in our phones that give us updates as to what is going on. Frankly, whenever I read the word abuse or rape or even molestation for that matter, I just slide away the notification and ignore it. Why dwell on it, when I’ve been reading such things since my childhood and never seen any results on the way of improvement, just more and more gruesome tales one-upping the previous every single time. But when the headline of Asifa flashed on my phone, I just couldn’t look away. The abusers literally have just one defence to put forward, that they raped her as a means of justice. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN??? Ok! Sorry for the outburst… let me just lay out the facts of this horror story for all those who are not from India.

Recently India witnessed yet another shameful and literally cringe-worthy gang rape act on an 8-year old innocent girl, which is being called a sort of twisted justice upon her community and thus performed in a temple nonetheless. No logic, no humanity, just a means to an end, a justification for their own male pride, their pedophilic psychopathy and their blatant disregard of a girl’s honour and choice. Let’s rewind to why they say it was justified.

So, it all started when Asifa Bano’s Muslim nomadic community came to Kathua town in Jammu with their herd. The Hindu dominated area could not take it and kidnapped the little girl in order to run them out of town. They raped her for 5 days in a temple, tortured her and finally showed mercy and killed her. Asifa’s bruised and battered body was found by her father after 7 days of search and the plight of the old man was incomparable to any pain the world could give him. He had already lost two children earlier and now the third one was abused beyond what words can ever describe.

The culprits of this deed involve politicians, policemen and juveniles. When the protectors of the common start abusing them, there is literally no hope left. Those who are meant to make our society better by eradicating these sort of acts, are the ones actually doing them. I won’t name them, the names can be found in news articles, they are not important, just a few names to give to a whole society of criminals. I just want the little girl’s story heard all around the world through our blogosphere. A society where someone rapes even before they are aware of what it actually means, shows how great their upbringing is. What are we even teaching our boys?? We teach them to be handsome hunks, we teach them style, we teach them machoism, wealth, fitness and what not; but we forget to teach them the most important thing of all…respect. Respect for women, men and choice of an individual.

When will we understand…rape is not a crime against the victim, it is a blashpemy; a poison, that is eating away at humanity. It is no one else’s fault but the rapist’s and his/her intentions’. I want each and every culprit punished, irrespective of age, gender and social status. But as I said earlier, justice is slow and at times does not prevail at all. In this case, I hope it does.

I request all of you to share this story far and wide, so activists can rise and give voice to that little flower who was plucked from the garden even before she could bloom.