From Nirbhaya to RG Kar Medical College: What has changed?

Nirbhaya’s parents never had to fight or self-immolate for bringing the perpetrators to justice. Instead of becoming more empathetic in dealing with such situations, we have now become more draconian.

Everyone from my generation would remember the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and death. It shook the entire nation and lead to a massive outpouring of protests and demands for making the country safer for women, leading to the passage of the Nirbhaya Act for punishment of sexual offences. 12 years later, similar incidents continue to recur with unnerving regularity, from Unnao to Hathras to the wrestler protests to the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder. The public and media have reacted with similar consternation and anger in each case. And yet, something has drastically changed in the last decade.

In the Nirbhaya case, a barbaric rape happened. It’s brutality shook the country’s conscience. The government of the day responded by acknowledging and investigating the incident, arresting the accused and bringing them to justice in the fastest possible legal manner. Another rape in Shakti Mills in Mumbai in 2013 also followed a similar course, with the accused arrested and swiftly prosecuted. These incidents were a huge blot on the names of Delhi and Mumbai, but there was no effort to discredit or downplay what happened. If anything, the governmental response was swift and effective.

None of this should surprise anyone. This is what would be expected of the government of the day, or from any decent authority.

But look at the subsequent incidences. In the 2017 Unnao case, the victim had to attempt self-immolation and her father was killed in judicial custody before action was taken against the accused MLA. The 2020 Hathras rape had the police hastily cremate the victim in the middle of the night (literally at 2.30 am) without the family’s consent or knowledge. The more recent wrestler protests showed that even our most decorated Olympians can be treated like dirt by the authorities, with the alleged perpetrator of the sexual harassment still roaming scot-free and his son actually getting nominated and winning the parliamentary elections. And the current RG Kar Medical College shocker where the college authorities tried to portray the rape and murder as a suicide, with blatant destruction of evidence.

Nirbhaya’s parents never had to fight or self-immolate for bringing the perpetrators to justice. Since 2012, if not safer, we should have at least become faster and more empathetic in dealing with such crimes. Instead we have become more draconian. We see attempts to deny the fact that a rape or sexual misconduct happened, with the accused protected and the victims maligned on most occasions.

What has changed? I am at a loss to answer this. In each of these cases, there has been a strong government and leadership in place, perhaps more so than during the Nirbhaya and Shakti Mills era. The incidences have happened in states ruled by BJP as well as non-BJP governments, led by both men and women. So this is not a question of men vs women or BJP vs INDIA. If anything, the one rare thing in which the thought processes and actions of all authorities seem to align perfectly is the ruthless way they have handled such cases. How has the collective political consciousness dropped so dramatically when it comes to dealing with such heinous women-related crimes?

What has changed?

Is it the effect of social media, which is making the leaders so focussed on having a blemish less narrative of their leadership that any dark spot needs to be glossed over? Is it that they have started believing that their algorithms can ‘manage’ anything and everything, including gruesome rapes, murders and sexual molestations? Or is it because it was the perennial soft target, a doctor, involved? (Pretty much none of the numerous cases of violence against doctors across India have had a conviction). Is the eventual fault with we the people, who have often started choosing to take sides on such issues based on our political inclinations rather than the facts, and even elect and re-elect MLAs and MPs who molest women?

How did this go so downhill since 2012-13? What has happened to us as a polity and as a country? We really need to introspect. The politicians for sure, but the public at large as well. It is time for everyone to wake up and act.