Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Leaderless protestors and impassive govt.) that was published in Newsband

Leaderless protestors and impassive govt.

The rape case in Delhi has disturbed lakhs of Indians, particularly the women folks. The government is found to be impassive and the Opposition has made a casual demand for instant justice. A crowd of protestor gathered at India Gate. They were without a leader. The police took advantage of the fact that the crowd was without a leader and so they started chasing and beating up the protestors. Thus the protestors ended up in a violent skirmish with the police.

Now who is responsible for this chaos? The government should be blamed. The government should have at least assured the women of India that a serious national review of all legal issues surrounding rape, sexual assault and gender rights would be undertaken on a war-footing. Instead, it waged a kind of war with the protestors. The crowd at India Gate found themselves face to face with a state apparatus that was not interested in a conversation.

Although arrests have been made after the gang rape incident and the government has promised a speedy trial, women in New Delhi and the rest of India do not feel any safer when stepping out of their homes. This is because the government itself is not interested in their problems. The government did not even care to initiate a national debate on this issue. The shoddy investigation, poor forensics and misogynist attitudes among the police and even lower judiciary are the main reasons why rape victims in India do not get justice.

The peaceful protesters were not there for instant justice but to wake up the politicians, police, and whole society and to tell them that enough is enough. But the politicians have failed to understand them. They are still trying to buy out time so that once time passes by, everybody will forget about it and they can continue ruling as they have been in last 65 years.

Changes are needed everywhere. There should be changes in governance, law, judiciary, policing and society. Only this will bring about a long term solution to this major problem. What India needs right now is women rights movement. Our kids should be taught right from school equality of men and women. Men particularly will have to play a strong role in giving women their due rights in the society.

Can reformative laws solve this problem? Or should there be punitive laws which does not show compassion to the criminals and which is sensitive towards the victim and the society? There should be a nation-wide debate over this issue and a perfect solution should be arrived at before more such incidents occur.