THROUGH THE SAME LANE: Cases of female sexual violence against the mighty and the due course of action

Though the race of homo-sapiens claim to be the most developed species on Earth and proudly
state them as a part of the continuously progressing society, however this developed society itself
is replete with heinous crimes against women. Sexual atrocities and violence against female
are one of those. Flipping through the newspaper or viewing the news in the electronic media
imparts a crystal clear idea about it.

The ones who are engaged in all sorts of sexual violence against women belong from different
strata of the society. The criminal justice system of the country which under the constitutional
framework, takes into accounts these crimes and ensures justice to the victims through a proper
series including apprehension, prosecution, defense and finally the verdict, vouches that law is
same for all and anyone pleaded guilty must be punished. However, in the due course of time
and certain heart wrenching incidents put forward a totally bizarre picture of this justice system
and taking note of the cases of sexual violence against the ones maintaining a high and mighty
social stature, every case has been moving through the same lane.

If the one alleged of any sexual atrocities against women is a common man, without political
backing, within hours of the complaint the accused is picked up by the police. Forget, sexual
violence accused, if anybody belonging form that stratum even has slightest of involvement
in anything of that sort, the police ensures that the fellow is behind the bars. On seeing or
hearing this, one might assume that how well our police works!! Pats on their shoulder!! But,
the story doesn’t end here, if any accused of such abhorrent act is from the political class or
with a political patronage or even is someone potent, the accountability of the police and the
system is lost somewhere. Under such circumstances perhaps a new sort of system tends to
upshot. When the accused is a potent one, firstly the accused disagrees to the allegations, in the
second step when evidences tend to develop in bits and pieces, the complainant is declared as
mentally unstable or something absurd. Later, the accuse claries his stand stating it as a political
conspiracy, but the shocking face is that, even after so much of happenings, the accused is still to
be nabbed by the authorities, and thus he continues to move freely.

No, the above stated stuff are not at all bogus, rather certain incidents of the past have gives a
clear image of what’s being stated above. The most recent one is the controversial self styled
Godman Asaram Babu’s accusation of raping a minor, where the same course of action followed.
Here initially he began by calling the victim as someone mentally unstable; in the due course of
time the victim’s family was being continuously threatened of dire consequences if the complain
isn’t withdrawn. Speaking on the context of the politicians, as usual forgetting their onus they
continue puddling each other. Some so-called youth leaders and politicians like Manish Mishra,
secretary of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha(BJYM), which is the youth organization of the BJP,
continues to character assassinate the victim calling her mentally disable on national television.
Congress is as always, chanting simply ‘the law must take its own course’ song. And in the midst
of all, Asaram is moving from one city to another, rather more specifically from one congress
ruled state to another and BJP ruled state and so on. And the progresses so far in the case is that
Asaram is just being issued summon by Jodhpur police, where he is yet to decide, whether to
appear or not.

Asaram is just one example; there are thousands that one could quote which would be a clear
indicative towards the unaccountable administrative and political system. In this case the victim
has been brave enough to come forward against such a powerful and influential person and off
course the media has been kind enough to continuously follow the story, but there are many
whose cries are lost in the crowd due the irresponsible and failed system, including political,
administrative and the justice. Infact, the politicians whom we choose as our representative
somehow tries to find a way to move out of the matters, calling the victim of sexual assault or
rape either mentally unstable or being a part of political conspiracy and later when they go to the
parliament, these same politicians will utter the similar dialogue, claiming to be with the women
of the nation and care for their safety and security always.

This gives a reason to introspect how far we have come and how much we have been developed,
to claim ourselves as human. As Indians we are very well aware that the system needs to be
changed, but when, how and who, still remains the biggest question.

                                                                                                        -Shamim Zakaria