Last night being restless and insomniac , I thought of watching the banned BBC documentary " India's Daughter" which I had downloaded just before you tube removed it. What followed the 59 minutes was gut wrenching and just unbelievable. I had to pause in between as Mukesh nonchalantly explained the crime in such chilling detail. There was hardly an iota of emotion, remorse or guilt of any kind, which left me wondering as to why this monster was even breathing.
The activists, government et al are all up in arms against BBC and Leslie Uwdin. And the government did what it does best, bury it's head in the sand and ban it , hoping the storm will die down. Irrespective of what the motivation was for both Leslie Uwdin and BBC (some suggest a greater conspiracy in which we are forever going to be pushed around on the basis of foreign agendas masquerading as concern for human rights.) There might be a myriad of reasons for the documentary to be made and released,despite India's vehement refusal to release it in India. But setting aside the fact that a foreigner had come and washed our dirty linen in public leaving us all naked and morally wanting and scandalized. The documentary shows the mirror to the state of our regressive minds today.
I'm not talking about the illiterate, slum dweller Mukesh, as nothing can justify his crime but of those two defence lawyers ,who are not even worth naming. Some might say that they were just doing their jobs , but their statement exposed the sheer intellectual poverty they possess. Their misogynistic attitude and patriarchal mindset might even leave the Islamic fundamentalist read ISIS to shame. But what surprises me is that these statements were not made by some wayside , slum dwelling vagabond but by the so called defenders of justice in their plush offices. So the question today is , has education made any difference in our mindset . Has our education system failed us and made us so morally bankrupt that we can't accept the the other gender as our equals. Are we so entrenched in our self made cocoon that we have all forgotten to become good human beings. In our pursuit to be literate have we forgotten to be educated.
Another thing that will most likely be forgotten in the hullabaloo of Mukesh's arrogance and the lawyer's misogynistic statements is the statement made by one of the lawyer, who said that there are around 250 sitting parliamentarians who are facing charges of murder and rapes. I can't vouch for the exact figure but it appalled me that our system allows such criminals to formulate laws for us. Our conscious has been numbed to such an extent that nothing can shock us , except when something as brutal as December 16 gangrape happens and shakes us all out of our collective reverie.
A couple of months back I was was talking to some young school going boys in their teens a long time back and to my chargin , these guys held the same thought that Mukesh had " that it takes two hands to clap". In other words indirectly insinuating the victim also as responsible for rape. So where have we all gone wrong as a society. Instead of passing on the buck ,it's time we all take a collective responsibility. The malaise lies in the deep seated patriarchal attitudes that's so well encumbered and protected in our society that whole system needs a overhaul. Be it the khapland dikats or the right wing fundamentalist rantings. Such discourse has no place in a civilized society and the government shouldn't pander to these fringe elements. We have inherited a rich and diverse culture , and every culture comes with it's downside and these pitfalls are coming to the fore. Skewered sex ratios and gender inequality , violence and discrimination etc shows that all is not well with our " culture".
The documentary exposes us for who we are , ' a country for no women'. It's something we knew right from the start and never made any amends but when an outsider comes and points out our failings, all hell breaks loose. So instead of finding excuses and circumventing the issue into something unrecognizable let's take suo moto cognisance of the issue and take up the problem head on.We can't keep ducking the issue now. Tomorrow it could be someone from your family.So my dear friends wake up from your slumber, it's time. I for one would want all men of this country be made to sit and watch this documentary. Let's all become uncomfortable with the truth that is in our midst. Unless we as a society become ashamed and squirm in our seats nothing will change.
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