The Mumbai gangrape rape case will take centre stage for a few days now. The police will or will not find all the accused (can definitely in 24 hours if it wants to). The political parties have started their blame game. Media has planned a couple of protests. And this will be the drama for the next few days. Since it is a photographer (a press person), the case has taken up prime time and so the police should act faster. The police commissioner Mr Satyapal Singh has assured ‘action’ within 24 hours. What is action, the next few hours will tell.
Having dealt with the police for many years now, especially with regards to rape cases, that is where much of our problem lies. Ever rape is actually a ‘lafda‘ for the Mumbai police. The first thing that the police will tell you is that the victim (the girl) was probably having an affair with the accused and the rape complaint is the result of a relationship gone sour. Have had police telling me that as “long as everything is fine, it is fine. Once the couple fights or the relationship breaks, the girl talks about rape.”
In very few cases, the police have been right and this they hold as the thumb rule now. The issue is their attitude. For most police, there are two kinds of women. One, the kind they leave at home, who work indoors and never utter a word in protest. The other is the kinds that have male friends, wear ‘modern’ clothes and are always in the fear of getting raped. And when rape cases reach court, often accused get acquitted for lack of evidence.
Political parties are on a high drama tirade. BJP loves the facts that both the high-profile rape cases (Nirbhaya in Delhi and this one in Mumbai) have happened in Congress-led states. This is when only a while ago Karnataka was witness to women being assaulted in a pub. There are Shiv Sena leaders talking about how women should be respected when its MLA only yesterday abused and assaulted women at the Nasik poll booth. And there is the Congress in the state which prefers to let police ‘protect’ their corrupt politicians rather than protect the common man. If there are more police on the roads and doing their duty, maybe there would be few cases of wrongful doing. Shakti Mills, what I remember, has been deserted for a while and home to drug addicts.
We as a society also needs to change. There were Mumbaikars who were telling television channels this morning that women should not frequent dark places. What kind of a solution is that and that too for journalists who are known to face every kind of wrath? Journalists have been killed, beaten up, threatened and warned over the years. It is all part of the job, the more risky an assignment, deeper the message to get across.