Mr Babulal Gaur, the home minister of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, does not know what it is like to always be on guard, to be alert towards strange men and to plan tediously for a simple commute across a city of swarming millions. Mr Gaur can afford himself the luxury of not having to worry about any sex crimes perpetrated against him since he does not belong to a gender which is scoffed at, punished, humiliated and whose body is construed as a source of casual merrymaking by many who deem rape to be ‘right in some cases’.
Since Mr Gaur is probably not aware of the haunting psychological pressure that comes with being constantly vulnerable to any and everyone who takes a fancy to him, he, most irresponsibly and callously, holds fierce anti-rape discourse in contempt and offhandedly suggests that rape is a mere ‘social crime’, which may be occasionally justified.
What those ‘cases’ are may well be a puzzle for all save for Mr Gaur and other rape apologists like Indian politician Mulayam Singh Yadav. Little do they know that the sickening rape incident of Uttar Pradesh has marred the sensibilities of the entire world. Their words are only lending more credence to the rape culture in a country where the incidence of sex crimes begets some hair-raising figures. In fact, the havoc wreaked by such senseless statements will know no borders: these words will continue to help strengthen the case of rape in an era where many are trying to stem the crime across the world. One is left to wonder: how dare these men publicly discount the gravity of a crime whose horrors they are clearly not aware of?
When these men relegate rape as a ‘social crime’, they inadvertently wash their hands off the responsibility of penalising it. But that is not the worst consequence of such statements since civil society activism and worldwide anger will do the needful to ensure that rapists are punished. That these statements help entrench the pro-rape arguments deeply into the hearts and minds of millions of men, spawning more criminals, is the most worrying factor. Those who abet crime should be punished along with the criminals.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
COMMENTS (6)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Why do we care about what an Indian state politician says about rape when we have so many women in our own country being raped, killed every day. At least in India, there is public outcry about such incidents. Here, nothing. Silence! Deafening silence!
The YADAVs are proof that ipads / itablets/ iphones dont make a man modern or (even) educated.
They live in a society where it has been mainstream this is not less than brutal and atrocious comment as editorial stated these sort of people agonise the entire humanity dwelling on the earth what this alleged by Indian minister i think he was sottish while stating this offhanded arguements he should be sued on the charges of pro-rape comments.
Mulayam singh,azam khan,abu azmi always play communal angle in each crime cases if a rapist is from minority or otherwise. That's why such ridiculous statement being apologetic. A rapist is a rapist and has no religion these politicians of same secular(covertly communal) party must realise for vote bank politics want havoc they are spreading in UP and Bihar. It's given both these states such bad name in other states of india that people don't want immigrants from these states working in theirs, citing they increase crime and bring their culture with them. Such statements from SP party of UP only add to that perception.
When you are right, you are indeed right!
frankly speaking no one takes these illiterates seriously and the one who was talking about changing rape laws has faced crushing defeat in lok sabha elections.... their mindless thrash talk only makes us laugh at them...regarding punishment of rape accused.... pakistan has to travel a lot to achieve some success here.... has there ever been conviction in rape cases in pakistan??? NO......broken justice system... i guess..........