Thursday, March 05, 2015

What is the argument about?

A huge storm has broken out over documentary called ' India's Daughter ' by a British woman, Leslie Unwin. Some are of the opinion that the documentary must be seen by everyone as it shows how bestial Indian men are. Others are of the opinion that the documentary is boring and just seeks to shock but does not tell us anything we do not know already. Still others think it was just a waste of time to have seen the movie. The documentary is about a young woman who was gang-raped in a Delhi bus in December 2012 so viciously that she died of her injuries. Women have every right to be outraged about the comments made by the convict and, in fact, the comments by his defence lawyers are even more outrageous but do they think that all men are the same. If men are enraged they will exact horrific revenge as these pictures of an alleged rapist being lynched in Dimapur yesterday will prove. What we need to do is to try and eliminate all emotion, not an easy thing to do, and examine the facts. We know that BBC is a propaganda channel and is generally negative about India, in accordance with the narrative of India being a much better place when we were ruled by the British and ' Indians and dogs ' were not allowed into restaurants. But that is also because we have allowed them to write our history and have not demanded any apology or reparations for the devastation they wreaked on us. India is not alone in assaults on women. Women journalists in Europe regularly face threats of rape and bodily harm, according to a report by the OSCE. Just because it is online does not mean it is not scary or upsetting. California has passed a ' yes-means-yes ' law to prevent sexual assaults on university campuses although how a man can prove assent is not clear. You are hardly going to take a signature on a Rs 100 stamp paper when aroused. Perhaps it should also be made a law in India. The government will make a lot of money and the number of children will fall while the man loses his ardour while trying to find the stamp paper. However, women are not afraid to go out in New York, Paris or London or harassed on streets and in public transport, as they are in Delhi. In all the heat generated by the film people have missed a crucial sentence from the convict. He says," She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'ed have dropped her off after ' doing her ', and only hit the boy." He is not only threatening the woman but her male companion as well. Shows that he enjoys violence. Why? Is it a rage against society in general or anger against the upper classes because he thinks he deserves more? We do not know. But there is a culture of impunity in India. Think Rathore, Amarmani Tripathi, Manu Sharma and Bitti Mohanty. If they are allowed parole for ridiculous reasons then the punishment is a joke. Maybe that is why he does not understand why he has to hang.

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