Thinking Allowed - Badaun: A reminder of India’s hollowness

Is this the first time?” thundered George Fernandes, then defence minister, in Parliament. “Is this the first time that such things have happened?” This was the parliamentary debate on Gujarat in April 2002 and he was referring to the sadistic rapes and murders of women during the frenzy of sectarian violence. His point was simple: that horrific violence against women was a part of India’s brutal socio-political landscape, so do stop behaving like the atrocities against women during the Gujarat violence were unbelievable aberrations. His argument horrified people still reeling from the dance of death in Gujarat. What an insensitive, callous, sexist boor, we raged. In a flash, Mr Fernandes’ refusal to be shocked by Gujarat’s violence against Muslims wiped out his long track record of dedication to human rights that transcended gender, caste, class, religion, region and even nationality.

Because we are a zebra nation. All black and white, no shades of grey. Nuance is not our style anymore. And we don’t like to think much. Not in politics anyway. Or in the media. We like quick yes and no answers, we like to believe in jargon, we like to go with the pack. Besides, why on earth do we need to think, when we can rest happily on the centuries of thoughts of our wise forefathers? As long as we believe in their wisdom and go by their rules all should be fine.

I am reminded of Mr Fernandes’ unfortunate remark as Akhilesh Yadav and team unswervingly shove their feet into their mouths over the Badaun rapes and murders. Instead of accepting that there is a law and order problem and promising to rectify it, the young chief minister with a foreign degree is disgustingly high handed and unapologetic. “Such incidents don’t occur only in Uttar Pradesh,” he said. But the media was focusing on Uttar Pradesh alone, he alleged, accused the media of blowing the Badaun case out of proportion, and suggested that the “cunning” BJP was making mischief by highlighting such cases. Earlier, when a woman reporter asked what he felt about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, he had curtly asked her if she felt safe. Then there is the memory of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s comment not so long ago that boys will be boys, and boys make mistakes, but how can you hang them for rape?

Badaun has sent shockwaves across the world, and has been commented upon by the United States and the United Nations. “We say no to the dismissive, destructive attitude of ‘boys will be boys’,” said UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon. The media has highlighted many other rapes and murders in Uttar Pradesh just this last week, including the sexual assault and murder of a woman in Bareilly and the gangrape of a woman over a land dispute in Amethi — both traditional Congress strongholds well looked after by the Gandhi family.

I do feel for Akhilesh Yadav. It is true that horrible, brutal rapes and murders occur in other states as well. If we look at it dispassionately, Badaun is not an aberration — it has just brought into focus what happens across India, what we know about but prefer to ignore.

The Badaun murders are exceptional because they have outraged us, largely thanks to social media, by showing us very clearly how our disempowered citizens continue to be brutalised by lawlessness, impunity, state apathy and criminal neglect. Badaun reminds us of the pervasiveness of violence against women and girls, especially in villages. It reminds us of the prevalence of caste atrocities. Of the unchallenged social and political impunity of powerful, higher caste men. It points out the lawlessness and the complicity of the police in crime.

Most importantly, Badaun reminds us of the hollowness of a grand nation that cannot even provide toilets to its people. Village women very often get raped when they go out at night to relieve themselves. For years governments at the Centre and in states across the country have refused to acknowledge their terrible failures. They have not been able to provide sanitation, safety, law and order. They have not lived up to the promise of equality of castes and gender guaranteed by the Constitution. And for years we have put up with this.

Because there is an unspoken understanding that we will forgive our leaders for not rocking the boat. Uttar Pradesh, like many other parts of India, thrives on outdated social conventions and patriarchal values that dehumanise women, the low caste and the disempowered. Like some other states, it has a complex social fabric where caste violence and violence against women flourish. But no one dares challenge the institutionalised inequality between genders and castes that leads to this endemic violence.

Further, there is a belief even among lawmakers that caste and gender violence are social concerns, beyond the law. So Babulal Gaur, Madhya Pradesh home minister, could openly sympathise with the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and his father. “Rape is a social evil,” he said. “What can poor Akhilesh or Mulayamji do about it?” Alarmingly, he also declared: “It is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.”

Whether they say it or not, people do believe that rape is not always wrong. And the attitude towards rape isn’t changing as much as necessary. The change is confined largely to privileged, urban circles. But most of our politicians address other constituencies — in villages locked in casteist, sexist tradition and custom.

Now the terrified relatives of the girls killed in Badaun have applied for gun licences. They have no faith in the police. And since we do not have proper witness protection, they need to protect themselves from the accused and their powerful families. But can disempowered minorities with a handful of guns really protect themselves from a violent, armed majority that has impunity? Because caste violence is not restricted to individuals. It targets the entire caste as one. Will every single disempowered, low-caste man and woman get guns?

The state cannot abdicate its responsibility by handing out guns to its citizens. It has to protect them. It has to enforce law and order, uphold the guarantees of the Constitution and punish the guilty.

About every 20 minutes a woman is raped in India. But gender violence is not part of the 10 priorities listed by our new government. If this government is really keen on good governance, it needs to tackle gender and caste violence. If it dares to be different, it should dare to rock the boat.

The writer is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com