Qammer Abbass Anka
“I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?”
(Laurie Halse Anderson)
Hardly a year back, the rape of an Afghani woman in an Indian posh hospital of Delhi became a disgusting news in Indian domestic and foreign media. The unfortunate woman was accompanying her mother in the hospital. One can understand the position of a foreign lady in a foreign country and that too under serious treatment in a hospital. This was the price she had to pay in return of the favours extended by a host country to a foreigner in the currency which is most common in so called ‘Secular, democratic and vibrant India’. Not much later, a similar episode took place but this time the victim was an Indian lady. The story with title, ‘New mother ‘raped in Indian hospital’ hours after giving birth was covered by entire Indian and most foreign media. According to the news, a man was charged for rape of a woman hours after she had given birth. The 23-year-old woman had given birth via Caesarean section and was being kept overnight in intensive care unit for monitoring when the alleged rape took place. Such news are no surprise as international media identifies India with the profile stating, “India remains mired in corruption, large cities that have the most dangerous pollution in the World and worries that the government significantly misleads outsiders about its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other critical measures of its economy. And a portion of India’s society supports barbaric practices that allow for honour killings and do little to stop heinous crimes like rape.”
Off late, Indian Defence Attaché in Kabul Brigadier S.K Narain was expelled from Afghanistan over charges of raping an Afghan girl. Reportedly, the unfortunate girl approached Indian Embassy for seeking academic scholarship where she was raped by the said high ranking Indian military officer. Rape is not an unusual thing for Indian Army officials. Just a month back, an Indian girl was raped by 3 Indian Army soldiers in a moving train. Incidents of such heinous crimes are not limited to Indian land only. There has been substantial number of rape cases at the hands of Indian officials during UN missions as well.
Rape is the fourth most common crime in India. According to India’s own National Crime Bureau Records annual report, 24,923 rape cases were reported across India in 2012. Compared to other developed and developing countries, rates of reported rape per 100,000 people are quite high in India. According to 2012 statistics, New Delhi had the highest number of rape reports among Indian cities, while Jabalpur has the highest per capita rate of rape reports.
It is the responsibility of every State to ensure protection of woman and her legal and democratic rights unconditionally. Unfortunately, States often make lofty but concave claims to support equality of gender and protection of women’s rights with no physical actions. The statistics of women rape may vary from country to country depending upon a score of factors. These factors may include quality of governance, religious practices, culture, state policies and the priority accorded to budget spending on socio economic development programmes. Unfortunately, India, a so called largest democracy on the globe and a big claimant of gender equality is one of the top countries which are notorious for highest rape rate. Rape is a nightmare for every urban as well as rural woman in India.
International laws, cultural rules and state legislations explicitly provide protection to womenfolk against abuses like rape in every country including India. Despite international commitment, availability of comprehensive legislations and loud public voices, India, has totally failed in controlling the ever growing evil of rape from her soil. This failure is not by chance but by design. The underlying reasons for this failure are not difficult to identify. These may range from religious taboos to cultural practices, weak governance to fanatic Hindutva centric State policies, indifferent attitudes of political leaders to suppressed public voices and so on. In India, agony of women is not that her complaints against rape are not attended; it is rather the weak legislative system which in turn blames the victim herself. The practice is not new and its presence can be traced in Hindu religious scriptures. It is narrated in “Ramayn” (Hindu religious and epic book), that Ram’s wife Sita was kidnapped by Sri Lankan king “Ravan” for sexual pleasure. After Ram’s victory over Ravan, despite being a godess herself, Sita had to prove her chastity by going to an ordeal titled “agni parksha” (solemn on fire). Recorded events of women abuse support the hypothesis that India is an eternal ordeal for womenfolk irrespective of her socio-religious status, class or creed. Similarly, Hindus adore and worship “Shiv Ling” to pay respect to god “Shiva” (one of the god of the trinity concept) who once raped Parvati (Hindu goddess). The worship is carried out publically. No other divine or non divine religion allows such brazen practices.
Unfortunately, India at present is headed by a fanatic leader, Modi who was once declared the ‘most stupid’ Prime Minister in the World by Google. Under his rule, India is fraught by renaissance of two identical tendencies of the past i.e, the growing Hindu radicalization and rising male chauvinism providing conducive environment for high rape rate. Both these phenomena are directly challenging the human rights and security of womenfolk. Resultantly, rape is becoming the fastest growing crime in India.
Rapist intensive Indian society is not only harming Indian women, rather foreigners, tourists and Hindu pilgrims from other countries have become equally vulnerable to this atrocious crime. In 2014, five men were arrested in Kolkata and charged for raping a Japanese tourist. Police said the men operated as a gang and targeted single Japanese tourist. Similarly, an Uber taxi driver was charged with sexually assaulting a passenger. The incident that became international news was the rape of a woman by five men on a bus in 2012. Poor victim later died of internal injuries. In March 2015, a minor Hindu girl from Ghotki, Sindh, Pakistan was molested in India by Police Officer Anand Gidde, who was working on Pakistani desk for Foreigners Registration Office in Puma. According to credible reports, the girl’s family was approached by RAW officials to cooperate in carrying out terrorist activities in Sindh. On refusal, their minor daughter had to face the torment of rape. Rape of a Pakistani origin Hindu minor girl seems to be driven by Indian proverbial loathing against Pakistan. Despite repeated demand of Pakistani High Commission in India, no action has been taken against the culprit Anand Gidde who has also managed a bail before arrest. Due to soaring number of rape cases against foreigners, many countries have frequently issued travel advisories to their citizens to exercise extreme caution against rape even when traveling in groups.
The audacity of Indian rapist that too from the most elite class, the Army has reached to the level that they do not care even for their national prestige while pursuing their weird activities like rape. Brigadier is not a small rank and represents upper stratum of Army. It is very unfortunate that India while pursuing her vested interests in Afghanistan claims to be her best friend and sympathizer of Afghan people but does not hesitate stabbing them at the back when ever possible. Poor war ridden Afghan people look forward towards Indian Embassy for genuine assistance are brazenly betrayed and horribly exploited. No nation can barter honour at any cost. Afghans being Muslim and with centuries old envious tribal traditions are not expected to accept dishonouring of their woman at the hands of foreigners, no matter how close they are. Rape is a heinous crime and must be condemned irrespective of creed, cast or religion of the victim. India must review her policies promoting male chauvinism to curtail exploitation of woman folk at the hands of extremist Hindus within as well outside India.
