Editorial: The apologia for rape
A special investigation team has been set up and, entirely due to the bravery of the survivor, who reported the crime the morning after, there is hope of a prompt investigation.
The rape of a student at a law college in Kolkata on June 25 has triggered huge protests in that eastern metropolis. As with the rape and murder of a doctor at the RG Kar Medical College last year, the crime has led to a familiar trade of recriminations between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.
Four men have been arrested for the crime: the prime accused, who was once a student of the college and now a temp employee, two younger men who are current students and a guard who sat outside as the heinous act was carried out. A special investigation team has been set up and, entirely due to the bravery of the survivor, who reported the crime the morning after, there is hope of a prompt investigation.
As we have seen in past cases, political barbs have clouded the issue. While BJP leaders say this is proof that crime has become rampant in Bengal under Trinamool Congress, the ruling party responds with classic whataboutery. Sure, a party whose members garlanded the men who raped Bilkis Bano have no right to be outraged by the latest atrocity in Kolkata; and it’s true that the National Commission of Women, which bats unashamedly for the BJP, is being partisan by taking up this incident suo motu after ignoring similar offences in BJP-ruled states.
But the issue here is not the fair name of the Mamata Banerjee government nor the foul record of the BJP nationwide. The question is why, despite the occurrence of more than 30,000 rapes annually (as of NCRB 2022), India’s law and policymakers have been unable to make a dent in a phenomenon that is party-agnostic and geography neutral. Going no further back than a few years into the past, gender crimes have cut quite a swathe: Manipur, Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kathua, and Hathras being just a few cases.
Perhaps we might do a better job of it if our political leaders did not rush to pronounce the what and why of this awful phenomenon. No incident goes without a public personality putting his or her foot in said mouth while trying to educate us on why it occurs. In the instant case in Kolkata, two Trinamool lawmakers stepped up to perform the gymnastics, one suggesting that the government’s responsibility ceases when a “friend rapes a friend” and the other blaming the survivor for going out with men.
The latter of the two stupid statements above is true to type for Indian public personalities mouthing off on rape. Some very tall leaders have contributed to a huge body of work on this matter over the years, all trying to frame the debate in a strictly patriarchal chastity belt. Mulayam said boys will be boys; Asaram Bapu suggested assailants would spare victims if addressed as ‘brother’; Mohan Bhagwat said rape is an urban phenomenon under the Western influence; Raj Thackeray said only "Biharis" do it; Kailash Vijayvargiya said rape was punishment for women who cross the Lakshman Rekha; and Om Prakash Chautala suggested child marriage could be a solution to rape. And then there was Salman Khan who said he often felt ‘raped’ after a hard day’s work.
With such illustrious men setting the terms of the debate thus, no wonder we never go past the first principle of rape apologia: She brought it upon herself.
