Rapists are not afraid of punishment

The alarming rise in the incidence of brutal attacks on women in India involving rape as well as murder is causing a global outrage. The scenario is hardly complimentary to a country that boasts of an ancient civilisation with a history of a healthy respect for women and an understanding of the role of sex in relationships between the sexes. While the Army is out fighting militants who gunned down a woman in Meghalaya for resisting their attempts to assault her, a horrendous sequence of events in Uttar Pradesh over the last week has shaken the world.

The gang rape and murder of two teenage cousins who were left hanging from a tree in UP and the police investigation into the attempted rape of a woman judge in Aligarh are symptomatic of how everyday life has deteriorated in the country’s most populous state. Beyond the brutal incidents that are shaking the very foundations of civilised society is the cynical official attitude of the father and son who lead the ruling Samajwadi Party.

The veteran politician Mulayam Singh Yadav, who once nursed ambitions of becoming Prime Minister, made a way too flippant remark about “boys will be boys”, which United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon picked up to convey the organisation’s grave concerns. The men in power should know well that an atavistic, chauvinistic and feudal outlook is not going to help shape the rigorous response to the problem.

The impact on tourism is bound to be deleterious, particularly after the media has taken up the issue to be highlighted as our treatment of women challenges the most basic tenets of life and impinges on the psyche of close to half the population, which must be left worrying every day about personal safety. By pointing to how a Google search would bring up incidents like those in UP from around the country, the chief minister of the state is playing the classic ostrich in the sand. The problem is so serious that facetious deflection or dismissal serves no purpose.

The December 2012 gang rape changed India forever. The subsequent toughening of the laws to impose the death penalty for repeat offenders was meant to signal a clear intent on the part of society and official India. Capital punishment has already been pronounced in cases of gang rape in Mumbai. It might appear that the laws are still not deterrent enough, but what we would advocate is persistent application of stringent laws to bring offenders to book. There is no other way but to arm the judiciary with stringent laws and empower the police to crack down on offenders in exemplary fashion to leave a message to intending rapists.