They want you to forget...

Just as we're digesting the copious quantities of grilled chicken (or whatever it is that vegetarians binge on) and booze, we have news of 'Rape Night' (aka New Year's eve) pouring in.

The media has done a superfragaliciously fantastic job of saying how Bangalore has become the 'Rape Night' capital of India. Politicians with the foot in mouth disease have been caught having their regular bouts of verbal diarrhea. 

Rape, sexual abuse, sodomy, molestation, outraging the modesty of a person. All words that used to shock our conscience and question the path of our society. Now, we barely twitch a nerve. 

This post isn't about my take on rape. This post, however, is about a pattern I've begun to notice.

• Everytime something like this is reported (unreported crimes don't qualify for our fanciful outbursts), we have our frenzied mainstream media doing an awesome job spewing the usual rhetoric, shaping our opinions and branding our victims. The media instead of informing us, appoints itself as our collective conscience, jury, and executioner. 
• Our law enforcement, which should have been the first on the scene, gets caught with its pants down (pun intended), fumbles, stumbles and launches a manhunt/investigation. Some of the more 'foot-in-mouth' diseased in the police brass will release a press statement objectifying women. 
• Caught unawares, our politicians, for the intense need to remain relevant, will make a statement (insert random statement about 'short dresses/skirts/makeup/lifestyle) that will ruffle the manicured feathers of the Woman's Commission. 
• The Woman's Commission will demand the resignation of the said police chief/politician. 
• If the culprit is presumed influential, the cops will bungle up the investigation. Ditto if the victim is poor/not nicely connected/doesn't look like she will be a thorn in the butt in the future/won't make a movie out of the whole shebang. If none of the above, the cops will actually do some average cop-work and arrest the suspects. The media will serve you a hot juicy plate of the 'modus operandi' of the investigation. Down to the last chicken leg. 
• Having read all of this, we - the 'shocked/dismayed yet concerned' citizens will sigh in relief and kick back on our cushioned recliners. All's well that ends well, eh? 

This is the way our media/politicians/law enforcement want. They are banking on our short-term memories about heinous crimes. When crimes like this are reported, it is but a speck in their eyes. An inconsequential bug in their windshields. Nearly all of the agencies involved will try to sneak a potshot at eachother. It's almost like some 40-year-old marriages. You know you hate eachother, but you still need eachother to survive. 
They will move heaven and earth to do just enough to satiate our thirst for salacious details but not enough to curb the crime. They want you to forget.

In an ideal world, the media must be gagged and prevented from whipping up mob justice. 
The media mustn't be allowed to spew opinions. 
Law enforcement should be motivated enough to do whatever it takes to solve crimes like this, and learn how from past crimes. They should let their work speak for themselves. 
Politicians should simply shut the fuck up. Period. 

India being India, we shouldn't expect cops to police (and not be corrupt). 

• How many of you homeowners out here, will give a decent house to single women without setting a gazillion terms and conditions? 
• How many of you parents know where your sons are, who they are with and what they are upto? 
• How many of your parents have encouraged their daughters to learn self-defense courses like Krav Maaga? 
• How many of you men out here will not give a second glance when you see a girl in skirt on the streets?
• How many of you men out here will not download and watch scandalous MMS clips of girls being raped/filmed without their knowledge?
• How many of you women out here know your rights and have reported crimes that happened to you/someone you know?

I have more questions that will make you squirm but you get the drift, right?

But then this is not endemic to India.
Barring the nordic region and a few countries in Europe, I doubt if women are any safer elsewhere. There are more unreported rapes in the West/Middle East/East than what they'd like us to believe. 
In Japan, young women are groped and raped in over-crowded trains on a daily basis. The crime is so popular that they even have a genre ('Rape Train Porn') for it.  
Underage rape is so popular in the US, that it is a billion dollar industry where young girls are dressed in bridal wear for their customers. Blacks and latinos aren't left out in the rape fantasy either. 
We wax eloquently about how strict rape laws are in the ME, but more women (with or without burqas) are raped every single day than in India. And if you have the gall to report, then you can be sure to be thrown in jail. 

Rape isn't an Indian thing. A lady isn't raped because she is wearing a particular outfit. Just because you don't hear it or see it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. 
In an earlier post, I'd written about how I think rapists must be punished - 

'I don't think hanging him/her will ever work. Death is too swift and too short for these monsters. I want a justice system that will put the guilty through the exact measure of trauma that the victims suffered. In the US, judges are allowed to decide the method and quorum of punishment, which has resulted in many curious verdicts that have both satisfied the victim and reformed the culprit, sometimes. I want rapists to suffer the shame, emotional and physical trauma and the untold agony of their victims. Why do we cover the faces of the guilty, when we love sharing the pictures (and names) of our victims? To rape is a horrible thing to do. And by sentencing them to the noose, aren't we letting them go easy? So this is what I propose - The guilty and his/her family must suffer the fullest extent of shame, their faces publicized, their financial credit ruined, their careers destroyed and be listed as a sex criminal and predator for the rest of their natural lives. Human rights? Unless you've been raped, you won't remotely understand why victims feel their predators don't deserve leniency.'

Men (and women) choose to rape only because they know the odds are stacked against the victim. They know they won't be caught and if they do, they know public memory of them will fade soon. Given the right representation in court, they will be walking free in a few weeks. 
They know they can change their names, move to a new city and start life all over again. 

Because they too want you to forget.

Recommended reading, if you'd like to read more...
Raped by my man
While you were gone... 
No Honor among thieves
Gutless
Acid Love
Good Job, folks!
3 Steps back
A New Low
Do Not Try This At Home
Chopping Block
Half

No Remorse [343/365]

Exactly 142 days after his famous error of judgement, the prime accused in the now infamous Guwahati molestation case has been sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2000/-

While I applaud the speed (pun intended) at which this case has reached fruition, I want to know why we behave the way we do.
The prime accused was nabbed almost a month after he groped the teenager to his satisfaction hundreds of miles away at Varanasi. Not praying for redemption, I suppose.

Couple of questions:
Does he have any remorse for the way he treated the woman?
Why has the court not delivered an exemplary punishment instead?
Why were the others acquitted when they were equally brutal and instrumental?
Why would a person who was seen molesting the girl been given a counsel to argue and challenge the verdict?

Now, I know how the law of the land allows even the guilty a chance to fight for his innocence, but really?
When rich rapists and the well-connected corrupt go scot-free, we have to ask if the law is really working?

Mr Kalita, is obviously neither rich nor well-connected but after what he did in July, he surely is famous. Having lost his job, the next two years will see him trying to fight and get vengeful. We could actually be turning an otherwise mild-mannered guy into a sociopath. After all, what he did isn't any different from what thousands of men do to vulnerable women on New Year's eve and other nights.

Surely he was the victim of his own cockiness. Smirking and smiling at the camera, he didn't imagine how he screwed himself.
What's happened to the victim? Will she take comfort that the guy(s) who ripped her shirt will sweat their brows for the next two years?
Or has she succumbed to the trauma of her memory?

When the crime has past and the spotlight has moved on, they are left wandering.
Trying to make sense of it all, pretending to live as normally as they can, all the while crumbling inside.

Kalita, I hope you rot in jail. And this is not because I have a personal vendetta against you, but because I wish your plight will teach future molesters to keep their wandering hands and penises to themselves.

A new low [200/365]

In the past week we saw the men of our nation reach a new low. A random group of men pounced upon a defenceless young girl who couldnt be older than 20, stripping and abusing her in a way that would resemble a pack of hyenas mauling a wildebeest calf.

In a video taken by a cameraman, the girl is seen begging, trying to reason with her attackers, pleading, and running for help to just about anyone she could spot. No one would help her instead we see passersby taking their shots too. After all its not everyday you get to grab the privates of a young girl and get away. The girl is screaming, shrieking in fear and probably wondering why none came to her help. About 30 minutes into the mauling, cops arrive at the scene after a good Samaritan calls to report the assault. Most of the champs have slipped into the crowd that gathered and the cameraman shoves a microphone into he face of the girl for the freshest sound bytes. After all he knew this video could be the money shot. He was right. His video went viral and so did half a dozen other videos that other 'cameramen' took. Some of them were even taking pictures of the 'event' to make sure they captured whatever remained of the girl's modesty for their private voyeur collection.

A couple of days after the incident the men who perpetrated this crime are yet to to caught by an administration that is beyond apathy. After a brief session of mutual finger pointing, and much needed publicity of the incident, I am left wondering what really is happening here.

I mean this is an open and shut case.

Here we have a girl who is probably still a teen who went with her friends to have a good time drinking and partying. It is reported that she had an altercation with a gentleman who was eventually asked to leave by the club security. He lies in wait for the girl to come out, passes a lewd comment which riles up the girl and she may have said something back to him. Infuriated, he starts attacking her with a frenzy. The man's pals pitch in and for good measure. Passersby get their fill too and by the time the now infamous video is taken we can see her top is almost ripped off. We see her scrambling for cover and help and the perpetrators muffling her screams and dragging her to the side to resume the groping and the mauling. 

Recently I watched Piranha and the way the men were taking shots at her, ripping her clothes and hitting her resembled the way the piranhas were feeding off their victims. It makes for excellent entertainment in such a movie but when I saw this happen to another human being, I was outraged, shocked and saddened.

Maybe the cameraman should have been more proactive in getting cops to the scene faster. Surely he did expose an incident that would have otherwise remained just a statistic and an event that's changed the life of the victim for ever. The role of the person is infinitely debatable. But would he have stood and done as little if it was his sister or wife being molested?

Maybe the girl was wrong and foolish in stepping out as late as she did without a male escort. Surely she is too young to be partying that late but she should have definitely used the proper judgement when she stepped out after an altercation. Men from the northeast are quite the boisterous handful.

Surely the general public that passed by and did nothing is as guilty of the crime as the ones who committed it. While we can say this is a sign of a bigger rot in society, this can also be explained as the syndrome where we tend to think that someone else will take care of this and we wont need to interfere. Or maybe they thought the mob was just -lynching a prostitute/witch, which apparently is quite common in that part of the world.

Whatever the reasoning, the cops showed their true colors when they refused to own up to the crime and instead reasoned otherwise.
But then this is the real rot in our country. We have cops and politicians who are unscrupulous and insensitive.

Shamefully, we are yet to arrest all the perpetrators despite their pictures being plastered across the country. And in the event that they do get caught, I doubt if any of them will have any remorse or if our courts will have the nerve to make an example out of them.