News & events
Emerging Pattern of Violence in India: The Crime and the CoverUp
Two recent incidents of rape have been widely covered and debated in the media. ... However, violence against women, Dalits and other marginalized communities and weaker sections of society is nothing new in India. If we care to look back at our history, it is replete with such instances. Yet there is something new, far more dangerous and disturbing in the violence that we see around us everyday.- Vagraj Badarayan, The Citizen, 16 April 2018
Two recent incidents of rape have been widely covered and debated in the media.
The first was the brutal gang rape of an eight year girl in Kathua district of Jammu. The minor girl belonged to the nomadic Bakerwal community of Jammu and Kashmir.
The second case is of of a young girl from Unnao who has alleged that she was reaped by the local BJP MLA. The two cases have come as a haunting reminder of the violent reality of our country.
However, violence against women, Dalits and other marginalized communities and weaker sections of society is nothing new in India. If we care to look back at our history, it is replete with such instances. Yet there is something new, far more dangerous and disturbing in the violence that we see around us everyday.
Let us look at the Kathua incident. The incident took place in January this year but it came to public notice when the police filed the case after doing a meticulous investigation nailing the culprits in April. The investigation brought out the gruesome details of how the minor girl was kept captive inside a temple, given sedatives and raped by several men in a perverse and gut-wrenching series of events. However, what came as a shock was the way in which Bar Association of Jammu and a few other groups owing allegiance to BJP and its ideological cohorts came out in favour of the accused. Two MLAs of BJP from J&K who are its serving ministers came out openly in support of the accused. They prevented the police from filing the report in the court. This marks the change from the past.
The violence against women and Dalits is nothing new but the open and blatant justification for such acts is new. The level to which people of a certain ideological and political affiliation go to justify it is new. The change in response, which is brazen and devoid of any moral pretence is indeed worrying.
Read the full article here.