The recent gang rape in Delhi crossed all imaginable boundaries. Any rape is an act of bestiality, a gang rape much worse, but to then inflict internal injury by shoving an iron rod into the victim is insane. It makes no sense. This was no personal enmity, no jilted lover, no family honour, no past vendetta, nothing – a random rape and then even more random brutality.
The public outrage is palpable and real. And almost like a predictable Hindi pot-boiler, the political class bumbles and stumbles over itself in response. The cops are on the receiving end of the public ire and rightfully so. For being the world’s largest democracy, India is remarkably unsafe for women. And it has always been so. In the past 20 years, governments have changed, leaders come and gone, but this one aspect – crimes against women – has remain unchanged, even grown over time.
There are big issues at stake.
First there is the matter of empowering and enabling the police to be preventive rather than curative. This will require more feet on beat, much more sensitivity to women, less manpower wasted on VIP security and a serious lack of fear of the corrupt high and mighty.
Then there is the law. It needs more teeth – must be made applicable to suspects as well and must be amended to have some far-ranging consequences. Presently, unless the victim dies, rape is essentially aggravated assault which doesn’t even begin to describe the horror, with 7-10 years imprisonment IF convicted.
Then there is societal change. In a combination of female foeticide, domestic violence and lack of education, Indian men have an extremely warped view of women. This ranges from likening them to property or chattel to complete and total objectification. Change is not going to happen in a hurry. It is part of our glorious 3000 year old culture, but it has got to happen.
I never thought I’d say this but I agree with Raj Thackeray on migrants. I think we need to keep the illiterate and absolutely uncouth types bottled up in their own native villages. Obviously not all of them are bad but there should be some sort of entrance exam before we let them live amongst us, like a personality test. It happens between nations, why not between states and cities? Just because we are a democracy doesn’t mean that worst lumpen elements from the worst possible environments get a free pass to civilization.
Now about the accused – there is clamour for the death penalty or castration as compared to life imprisonment.
For gang rape, I think death is too easy. We don’t have any conclusive evidence about either heaven & hell or about reincarnation. There is no guarantee that they will either rot or burn in hell, or get screwed in their next life. The punishment must match the crime and death doesn’t do it for gang rape. Nor for that matter does castration. Castrated men can continue to live relatively normal lives, and in fact, may become more violent because of their frustration.
No, the correct punishment would be to chop their arms off. Leave their dicks, chop their hands off instead – that’s what they used to hold their victim down. Without their hands, those dicks won’t matter, ever.
All brutality happens with the hands. Of course there is mental abuse, but in its physical manifestation, the hands play a crucial role. Imagine trying to harm or grope or hurt or molest or rape a woman without hands. Just can’t do it. We may see the world with our eyes, but we experience it with our hands. We explore the world with our hands – we shape it, build it and destroy it with our hands. We hurt people, wield weapons AND subdue rape victims with our hands.
The punishment for gang rape should be hands chopped off and the associated prison sentence fraught with the ominous danger of honourable jail justice…subjected to sodomy and gang rape with an iron rod. And if you still survive, a helpless life after that to contemplate your actions and be a pathetic but living symbol of deterrence to others.
Yup, that sounds about right.
SAMEER NAIR 