ARE WE A NATION OF RAPISTS

There seems to be a well-marked dichotomy in our social and political thoughts and behaviour. We show extreme intolerance at the social level at any sign of wrong doing. Take a road accident. If the driver of a vehicle runs over a pedestrian or rams into another vehicle resulting in fatalities, instant justice is delivered by the onlookers by thrashing the driver or torching the vehicle. If a couple of words in a film song sequence is not palatable to a certain community, there are riotous scenes before the theatres. If a patient dies in a hospital, may be due to the negligence of the medicos, the hospital concerned has to pay a heavy price and has to face the wrath of both the medical fraternity and the people at large. If the priest of a temple has a photo op with a celebrity there is protest. Instances of acid throwing on the hapless victims, which are disturbingly on the rise in Andhra Pradesh, are again signs of social intolerance.

Let’s compare this with the inexhaustible tolerance we show to certain categories of privileged people. Take the case of Kovvur MLA T V Rama Rao. Charges against him are quite serious. If it involved a lesser mortal, he would have been behind the bars long ago. But in his case, first the local police acted so casually and the MLA had the temerity to undertake a fast to prove his innocence. Probably this is one of the legacies left by Gandhiji for posterity of political blackmailers. As if this is not enough, the governor gives a patient hearing to the accused. Will he extend the same courtesy to all the rape accused?

When five girls from a neighbouring state narrated their woes to the government which included attempt to rape and threat to kill by the MLA, the TDP, the party to which Rao belongs, unabashedly comes to his rescue and defends him saying that there is a conspiracy. On one hand the political class swears by its commitment to the welfare of women and when it comes to specific issue, there is extreme insensitivity when the women allege sexual harassment. Had the MLA belonged to a rival party, the reaction of the TDP would be just the opposite.

How could a political party tolerate the alleged criminal conduct of its legislator even if it is not proved in a court of law? Instead of parroting the cliché that one is innocent till proved guilty, the party should have distanced itself from him until he is cleared of the charges. In fact, this “innocent –till- proved- guilty” theory has been thoroughly abused by many culprits to the disadvantage of the victims. Let the law take its course, we may often say. But so far as the party is concerned, there should be zero tolerance and the politicians should be above suspicion like Caesar’s wife. Rao should have been first suspended from the party and taken back only when he is proved innocent. That would have conveyed the right message to everyone.

Defence of Rama Rao is only an insult to women. Normally, women who are victims of sexual offences do not come out and report for fear of social stigma. According to available data only one out of 69 sexual offence cases is reported and of the cases reported, only 20% of the culprits get conviction. When such is the social reality and when the victims depose before the authorities, should a political party treat them with contempt and imply they are partners in conspiracy?
The TDP alone is not guilty of such misplaced tolerance. We should see the manner in which the Congress MP from Nagarkurnool M Jagannatham was making a ridiculous attempt to defend himself before the television cameras when the video footage was showing him slapping the Bank official. He also invoked his caste to make out a case that there was conspiracy against him because of his social background. How tolerant we were with him. We let him off when he offered a grudging apology. That too, only when the party high command intervened. Otherwise he would have charged the Bank official under the Prevention of atrocities against SC/ST Act. Again, we can’t help drawing a comparison. If an ordinary client were to manhandle a bank official, he would have been booked for assaulting a public servant and incarcerated.

By the way, the Bharatiya Janata Party was also guilty of not dissociating the party from Varun Gandhi, and it paid a price for its tolerance of Varun’s intemperate speech.

Rape charge or attempted rape charge against TV Rama Rao is, of course, not an exception. The media has been reporting with alarming regularity cases of rape involving different sections of society. It could be a film actor like Shiney Ahuja, or deviant security officials as in the case of Shopian in Srinagar or foreign tourists who fall easy prey to the rapists. Why, even a Swiss diplomat was abducted from the IFFI parking lot and raped in her own car. Custodial rapes by policemen are a routine occurrence. Sexual offences in the villages are always hushed up as it involves family honour. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) profiles the average rapist like this. 75% of the rapists are known to the victims, as in the case of Kovvur nursing school students, though the charge against Rao is only an attempted rape.

While discussing sexual offences, it has to be admitted, though shamefully, that India stands third in instances of rape. Of course, the US with its extremely permissive society, leads with 93,934 cases of rape, followed by South Africa with 54,920 and India with 18,359 cases in the first three quarters of 2008. This amounts of 678% increase or 8-fold increase in India since 1971, the year from which data is available. Mind you, these are only reported cases of rape. We have to multiply this number by 69 times to get the actual number. Comparison with the US must be misleading because the US society may be less inhibitive in reporting cases of sexual offence whereas in India the victims do not come out in the open to report such cases. Even in the case of Kovvur girls, they came out only when they felt that they might get justice in view of the media exposure against the MLA.

There are reports, as I write this, that the Kovvur MLA may be arrested. Whether it happens or not, it may be relevant to quote Amnesty International’s observation. It says “If a state fails to ensure law enforcement, if the behaviour of the police and judiciary leads to widespread impunity in cases of sexual violence, this has to be judged as the tolerance and acceptance of violence against women by the state”.

The State or nation’s polity should not be seen to be indulgent or tolerant of sexual offences or for that matter any crime punishable under the law committed by law makers. Any sign of defence of such people might be a wrong signal to the people at large. There must be an initial deterrent by way of dissociation with the accused rather than defence whether in the case of Jagannatham or TV Rao or Varun Gandhi