INDIA – IS THIS COUNTRY EVOLVING INTO A RAPE-TORN NATION?

Unlike the war-ravaged countries of Middle-East and African countries we Indians draw immense pride in being a democratic country. Unlike the war-torn countries where rapes are occurring in lakhs and lakhs, our’s is a democratic country  and is believed to be a peace-loving one where everything is moving along a smooth plain and if one thinks along that lines it is utterly ludicrous, if recent developments are an indication.

India, the largest democracy, thus we are taught to believe on a daily basis witness mind-boggling, blood-chilling and outrageous rapes of women and children. In bringing out such cases our media plays a pro-active role and makes one ponder over the intensity and immensity of the menace. ‘Look, such things are happening in our country, See India has turned out to be rape-torn country where under the very noses of ruling mandarins, we mean the capital of India, Delhi, rapes are mounting in hundreds as the days move along compared to the menace occurring across other States’. True, India is evolving into a rape-torn country if not a war-torn country where incidents of rapes are running in lakhs.

Only four months have passed since a 23-year old physiotherapy student of AIIMS was brutally raped on a running bus by six thugs which forced thousands of citizens across the country especially Delhi spilling out into the streets where the girl-student was based who later succumbed to death in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore.

For the authorities it was business as usual who were ‘shocked’, ‘alarmed’ and crocodile tears shed profusely and to placate the fuming citizens appointed a commission, with Justice J.S.Verma, as the Chairman,  known for his ability to stand by his principles and also renowned for his legal acumen. Justice Verma realizing the gravity of the problem submitted his report within a record time of one month which if implemented could have helped a lot in rooting out the evil. On the contrary India govt introduced and passed a Bill on Crime Against Women in Lok Sabha diluting the Verma Commission’s recommendations which provided many loop-holes for the criminals to escape the clutches of the law.

The incidents of rape didn’t come down as the govt had many other business to concentrate which helped the thugs roam freely through the streets of Delhi non-chalantly. They too went on with their businesses as usual.

This week, our nation witnessed two brutal rapes, one in UP and the other in Delhi. The UP girl after being raped was brutally murdered and her bereaved mother who gave vent to her anger was seen on television screens being kicked and thrown away by the men in khaki.

Whither our country is drifting to?

We are compelled to ask this question on listening to and witnessing the chain of rapes occurring across our country.

After Nirbhaya, the 23 year old physiotherapy student who was sexually assaulted on a moving bus and thrown away to the streetside along with her lover, now comes another equally shocking incident of rape of a five year old girl by a sex-starved demon in a locked room for two consecutive days badly damaging her sexual organs. 

If the residents in the first floor had not heard the child’s cries of pain, she would have been done to death and thrown away somewhere. The residents on hearing the girl child’s cries duly informed the so-called low enforces, so-called in the sense that with the enraged crowd spilling out into the streets to protest and raise slogans, a shouting lady was slapped by the Assistant Commissioner of Police who has since been put under suspension. With dust settling down don’t be surprised if he is reinstated with promotion in future.

The girl-child whose inner parts were grievously damaged was first admitted in Swami Dayanand Hospital where the treatment facilities are reported to be insufficient was later transferred to AIIMS after widespread demands by the citizens to get her admitted to a super-specialty hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Her condition is reported to be precarious and doctors have set 24 hrs to inform if there is any progress in her state. She has since been shifted to a hospital in Nagpur, it is learnt.

Has India evolved into an accursed country? Has democracy turned out to be a liability rather than an asset? Are people losing faith in democracy? On going thru the ‘developments’ in various walks of life we don’t see anything to be proud of. Scams, scandals, industry-bureaucrat-politician nexus, poverty, corruption, unemployment and the so far hidden curse of rapes everything erodes our faith in our 66 year-old democracy.