With all my might I strongly condemn the brutal and inhuman rape committed by the 5 beastly youth on Journalist Photographer in Mumbai 4 days back. Kudos to Mumbai Police to nab all the 5 rapists within 72 hours – 4 in Mumbai and the 5th in Delhi. By nabbing all the culprits in record time Mumbai Police maintained its billing as the best Police Force in India.
Earlier in early Seventies, Bombay Police had created a history by capturing the dreaded criminal Raman Raghao who was considered as the most difficult criminal to nab but Bombay Police within a short period succeeded in arresting him alive thus giving peaceful sleep to Bombayites. During those few days Raman Raghao had created such a fear in Bombay that some people were even afraid to sleep at home because he was known to enter your house as invisible, kill a woman breastfeeding her infant child, then suck her breast and disappear from the scene as invisible only.
‘RAPE IS NOT AN END OF LIFE’, stated the rape victim from the Hospital bed in Mumbai where at Jaslok Hospital she is recuperating. Very courageous statement it is and very encouraging for similar victims and society as a whole. It is a fitting answer for all the rape victims not to retire into oblivion after they are raped. Rape victims require support and encouragement to carry on with their life as usual without pointing a finger to them that they are downcast. Even the young boys should voluntarily come forward to marry such girls because they have done no wrong, it is the rapists who should be condemned.
In rape there is no sexual pleasure for the victim but only a torturing and physical harm for her body. Rape is an unconsensual sex forced on the victim by the physical might of the culprit and as such the victim deserves sympathy, support and acceptance in its fold as normal person by the society.
Since rape in India is a routine occurrence, the authorities neglect it as normal happening needing no remedial measures to stop it from further occurring. Our political leaders since many of them are a party to this crime and since their daughters and other family members are not subjected to this crime, they refrain from enacting stringent laws to punish the rapists. They see silently everything and yet pretend to be sleeping but once their daughters are raped then only they will wake up from their sleep to enact harsh laws as existed in some Islamic countries.
After the last big raping scandal in Delhi in December, numerous people came on to the streets demanding capital punishment for the rapists and fast track judgement. To silence the voice temporarily of the vociferous demonstrators, government promised remedial laws to prevent and stop raping in India. However, to my utter disgust government is still sleeping and will go on sleeping further because government has no wish to enact laws for harsh punishment. Thru this lethargy of government’s inaction, government is encouraging rape in India.
In view of this, I feel some body must come forward to ‘Bell the Cat’, and who will be that somebody? According to me it will be the Mumbai rape victim – Photo Journalist – who should after her discharge from the hospital conduct a ‘A Sit In Strike ‘ at the strategic location in Mumbai to put pressure on government of India to enact stringent laws to punish the future rapists. Since time is very ripe now for this action because of public sympathy, she has to "hit the Iron when it is hot". To take this action she is in a better position and all her supporters will surely join her in this move. Social activists in Mumbai can encourage her to take this action and lend her all the required support. This is what I suggest.
Besides, in the coming general election, electorate in India must put a heavy pressure on all the political parties to add this point in their election manifestos giving top priority for this point. This point must be made an election issue in 2014 general election.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.