-Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The stand taken by the Supreme Court of India on the Unnao case is a slap on the face of the tall claims of law and order in Uttar Pradesh. That all the four cases related to it are now transferred to Delhi and will face trial with in 45 days from yesterday reflect how deliberate were Uttar Pradesh government’s effort to deny her justice. Can you imagine the horror and terror that this brave girl faced through the henchmen of the MLA Kuldeep Sengar who enjoyed patronage of all the political parties.
The issue of women’s safety is of great concern but look at the people. The bloody village is sleeping as if nothing happened. Where are the political parties in Uttar Pradesh. Why the issue not raised by them powerfully as happened during Nirbhaya. Can you imagine, this case has brought so much misery for the girls family. Her father was arrested, tortured and ultimately died in the custody and the girl was blaming to herself for his death. Her mother faced trauma. The girl and her mother were gang raped by the goons of Sanger. Her Uncle too was put under false charges. And finally, when she did not leave her struggle and fight for justice, the powerful MLA and henchmen planned a murder of the entire family so that the cases are closed.
How poorly it reflect in our system that a victim dies the case is closed. Please dont do so. It is important that these thugs and cheats are boycotted publicly and punished by the courts of law.
The BJP after the high tone of the CJI has expelled Senger but with a faint heart. Ofcourse, the party, will compensate his wife or brothers with some position as they did to the chiller politician who abused Ms Mayawati. They made her MLA and now the woman is a minister. Look, how the BJP leader Jagdambika Pal defended Sengar by accusing the opposition to plotting the murder of the family of the Unnao survivor but did not utter a word against his ‘biradari’ goons.
As I said we all failed in protecting this. The Thakur leaders remained mute and in fact protected their own community goon masquerading as leader. The Thakur community remain mute and completely under the grip their male leadership and owner, did not stand up. The ‘others’ who felt that it is not an important issue since the ‘victim’ does not hail from a ‘marginalised’ or ‘minority’ community. This incident happened during the Kathua case. The nation new about Kathua that time but not Unnao. I dont say that Kathua incident was not important. I have all support for those brave legal fighters who fought and I can understand the limitations of ours, resources and everything but we do understand also the dilemmas of people.
Kathua verdict is already out as it was actively followed up and taken up by the activists but unfortunately Unnao incident was not taken up that seriously resulting which the state has the fullest monopoly. It tried to muzzle her voice. She was languishing from here to there. The CBI court has not yet started. It did not have a judge. Her uncle faced chagesheet while father was arrested, tortured and killed in police custody. In the meanwhile, the girl and her mother also gang raped. It showed how powerful these terrorists are.
Frankly, in India, incidents become stories when the perpetrators of crime belong to other communities. Have you ever imagined what would have happened if, the criminals belonged to other community particularly Muslim, in the case of Unnao ? I can bet we would have seen Karni Senas, Ram Senas, Kshatriya Senas, Hindu Yova Vahinis, Bajrangis and what not in the street and country would have been in the boil and prime time fake warriors would have been debating about this all the time instigating people to boycott or even take revenge.
But this is not the case with the Thakurs alone. We have seen this in all the communities including Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims too where certain matters are treated ‘internal’ and people do not speak up. Women’s issues are basically treated internally and become volatile only when the aggressor belong to another community.
A crime is a crime is a crime and we need to stand up and speak against. This country is losing everything. My worry is not merely the constitutional court’s supremacy. It will happen and hopefully, the girl survive and also her lawyer. The real worry is how we keep conspicuously silent on times and speak up on occasions when it suits us. The principles of ‘convenience’ need to be given a go by if we want to survive as a democratic nation which can truly be called civilised.
I hope the brave girl of Unnao will survive and speak up her story and inspire many others who remain to keep quiet. I can only salute to this girl for her indomitable spirit, her courage despite all adversity that it brought in her life. We know what do you get after losing all your family members. That pain will always be there but she can be an inspiration for many others who lose hope and just succumb. Let us hope that she is able to see the perpetrators of the crime facing maximum punishment and an example is set that before others attempt to do it, they realise that there is a law which can catch them.
Will this Supreme court monitoring of this case, will send any message to the powerful who thing they can do things at the whims and fancies. Let us see how our political parties take up this issue and ensure that no such leader is given any space in their parties. Will they rise up and make an operation clean up in their respective parties ? Will our society stand up when the matter comes from the communities. Will communities stand up and boycott who are found of such criminal acts. The Supreme Court guided court verdict in this case will come and hopefully, with in this year, we will get a verdict but the bigger question is for all of us as a society ? Will the society remain mute to ‘internal’ violation and only take to street when it is done by the ‘others’.
This is the biggest challenge. Treat crime as a crime whoever does it is a criminal. Ofcourse everybody has a right to have a fair trial. We hope the terror regimes which have many enclaves like this in many places of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of India will come to an end if there are clear cut guidelines. And hopefully, one day, these people will also called ‘terrorist’ by the government. Will they ? Not at all because, the action against Sengar has only happened after the outburst of the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court can widen and monitor this case regularly and give an ambiguous order regarding the behavior of the police officer or investigating agencies, it will go in a long long way. Nothing substantial happened after Nribhaya case but now time has come when we all have to sit and ponder over as why we are unable to grow and become a civilised society. Dont leave everything for politicians and government to ‘think’ as larger ownership in this case is of the society which failed to rise up.
