Delhi Gang Rape - Video of protests at India Gate

This is a short clip edited from a 7-8 min video I shot of these two bravehearts standing up to the Delhi Police all by themselves on the evening on December 23, 2012 at India Gate in New Delhi.

An unprecedented mass outrage followed the brutal gangrape and assault on a 23-year-old medicine intern by six men in a moving public bus near New Delhi's Vasant Vihar area.

Indian national dailies variously called the rape victim Nirbhaya (which means fearless), Amanat (which means something trusted with you for safe-keeping, the colloquial reference is usually a person or thing entrusted to you by God and so, which needs to be protected and loved till death) and Damini (called after the female protagonist of a Bollywood film who fought single-handedly to get justice for a rape victim).

Nirbhaya was announced dead on December 29, 2012 in a Singapore hospital. Doctors at New Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital said Nirbhaya was someone with an unusual willpower and inner strength. Being a doctor, Nirbhaya precisely knew what she was going through, and perhaps knew it was a losing battle she was fighting. Still, she kept about her calm, poise, dignity and presence of mind in spite of bearing unimaginable pain, Nirbhaya recorded a police statement before her body could no longer keep up with her will.

The government's immediate response - if it can at all be qualified so - was of apathy, blame-game and a complete disconnect with the ground realities of molest, sexual assaults and rapes that Indian women face every single day.

Chief minister Sheila Dixit refused to meet a group of protestors that sought an interaction with her outside her residence. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said they understood the nation's pain because "they also had daughters." To this lame talk, the most staple response of all young women protesting at India Gate, including that of Kritika (seen in the video) was: "Have their daughters ever travelled daily in a public bus? Waited for an auto at night? Look who's talking!"

Lt. Governor Tejender Khanna, under whose authority lies the Delhi Police, was vactioning in the US when India was boiling. He reportedly had to be "called back" (which gives us a ground to assume that he did not voluntarily curtail his trip) to take charge of the situation after a public and on-television blame-game by chief minister Sheila Dixit. Khanna returned to Delhi only on Sunday night, December 23, 2012. On Sunday evening, police constable Subhash Tomar collapsed after reportedly being roughed up by a mob protesting at India Gate. Tomar was announced dead on Tuesday morning, December 25.

Delhi Gang Rape

First, chief minister Sheila Dixit's obnoxious refusal to hear out protestors' anger about the Delhi Gang Rape.

Now, Delhi police lathi-charge and use tear-gas shells on people rallying against the crime and seeking tough laws.

We need a new satyagraha & a new independence movement against this insensitive, impotent governance.

#DelhiGangRape

Sheila Dixit URL: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/furious-delhi-takes-to-streets-blames-cm-sheila-dikshit-govt-demands-end-to-rape-culture-watercannoned-by-policemen/1047556/

Lathicharge + Tear gas on protestors URL: http://news.xin.msn.com/en/regional/police-tear-gas-delhi-gang-rape-protest

Pallavi Purkayastha

How in the world did he think he could get away with it?

Pallavi's attempted rape and consequent murder has shaken me in an unprecedented way.

Ever since I can remember, I have been let down by my country's gender apathy and gender hypocrisy. This is a country where, instead of swiftly deciding in which public park the rapist should be castrated or the molester stoned, abused women instantly suffer character scrutiny. The common counsel to avoid eve-teasing is "to dress decently." Here, attire or lifestyle is justified as an "invitation to rape."(1) (2)
I live in a country where women are respected only in grandiose theory. Chauvinist escapisms abound. Let's face it: India is no country for women.

When was the last time you tolerated being groped in a bus, on the street, in the train?

When was the last time someone shove his dick in front of your face in a crowded bus and have the audacity to smile in your eyes?

When was the last time you collared your molester and made a scene?

When was it that you gave up fighting because you realised molestation in some form or the other is a daily affair?

How, you wonder, is your silence relevant to Pallavi Purkayastha?

Well.

Men in this country, whether they stare, grope, rape or kill, they are becoming used to getting away with it. For Pallavi's sake, the next time you are abused, don't take it mute. Scream. Shout: NO.

Death Sentence for Santosh Kumar Singh

The news is enough for a lot of emotional brooding over. A reason to rejoice, even for strangers like me sitting miles away.

Some news spread like wildfire. Some gain momentum slowly. This case, throughout its proceedings, perhaps witnessed a mixture of both the phenomena...

While the aquittal on December 3, 1999 was met with dismay and shock, nothing much ensued immediately. It took time to wake up the citizens of India from their indulging luxuries, their safe coccoons of existence and peep into the system which had gotten stinking rotten.

But wake up, they did. One whisper to another, then muffled discussions, then furious debates, slowly people found a voice whose existence they had forgotten. They shouted, not caring if they were heard or not. Shouted their shouts of frustration. It was necessary to spit out the years of meek tolerance and mute witnessing of injustice...

Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Mattoo, or Nitish Katara. On the face of it, these are just three names, of the innumerable number of people who are murdered or raped in India. But they are different because the victims' relatives did not give up. These cases have managed to wake up a nation and compel it to seek justice.

I want to pay tribute to the families of all the three deceased above. Had it not been for their committment, had it not been for their perseverance, their sorrow which they resolved to turn to their strength, I would not have been able to see today the Judiciary bending down to a public outrage. I would not have seen the retrial. I would not have gotten elated hearing the news. I would not have been touched.

I have learnt one of the most important lessons of my life through Priyadarshini's father. If you want something, you don't get it merely by wishing it. You'll have to slog for it and be prepared to stumble upon all the unseen, but almost certain obstacles on the way. But most importantly, if you want something dearly and are certain it's right, the most conscientious thing to do is to go ahead and try.

It's a moving paragraph when Atticus tells Jem and Scout in 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' :

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

It is because of such courage of Chaman Lal Mattoo that we can manage to see a brighter side of the judiciary.

Gauri Gharpure

Life or Death for Santosh Kumar Singh...October 30 The Red Letter Day...

It's October 29, 2006. It's a stale, redundant, selfexplanatory lead.
But I repeat: it's October 29, 2006. So what...

I'll tell you what.

A family somewhere is huddled up in anxiety. Remnants of sorrow are mingled with flakes of hope. They would love to be optimistic. But they might have learned to fear the feeling. Being optimistic is risky these days. It can also be devastating. It was, on December 3, 1999, when Santosh Kumar Singh, a rape and murder accused was acquitted. The conscience of a nation was rocked.

The Priyadarshini Mattoo case might have limped up to the courtroom, fought a galant battle and finally glimpsed at justice. From December 3, 1999 to October 17, 2006. That's the journey of justice. A haggard, effortsome, unrelenting journey.

There's a strange anticipation in me when I write this blog. I fear this anticipation, for I hate not getting the anticipated. I anticipate, with all my willforce, that Santosh Kumar Singh is ordered to be hung to death.

I assume that the reader knows about the case. Priyadarshini Mattoo was raped and murdered on January 23, 1996 in New Delhi. Evidences pointed to Santosh Kumar Singh, but these were smothered by power and influence. Period. The Delhi high Court, on October 17, 2006 pronounced him guilty of murder and rape, and is expected to read out the sentence on October 30.

I have a few questions to ask.

Have you wondered how Santosh Kumar Singh managed to go on to become a practising lawyer? (Who were the people who trusted him with their cases)

How did he manage to get married? (!!!)

How his friends had the gumption to rough up the media after the October 17, 2006 conviction?

Having pondered over the above questions, it seems there are a large majority of people to whom 'right' or 'wrong' and 'conscience' do not exist. And the rest, perhaps a minority, have to be preprared to struggle against this gamut of negativity.

When such attitude and arrogance survives in our country, I cannot dare to call it a 'civilised' nation or attempt to bask in an illusion of security. We, as a people, are in an urgent need to be more sensitive. Sensitive to corruption, senstive to rapes, murders, political scams and all the innumerable news which we assume unaccountable and irrevocable. Sensitive, because the bad things in life are not always benign.

Cynicism has, sadly, become a fashion statement for many. People may not be satisfied by 'one' such stray verdict against powerful and rich accused. They are granted their intellectual brooding over.

October 30, 2006, for one, might prove instrumental to fuel up strength in some more weak, haggard bodies to stirr up another long battle, just to get a glimpse of justice. The battle has begun...

Gauri V. Gharpure