Blame the Rape Victim courtesy Delhi Police

In a recent investigation by NDTV and Tehelka into the rapes in Delhi and how the law enforcement handles and looks at them, there was a stunning revelation: Most senior cops are hostile to the victims and blame them for their own rape.

In a two-week long investigation, Abhishek Bhalla and G Vishnu spoke to more than 30 senior cops in the Delhi-NCR region. More than half had shockingly ugly views on rape victims. This is the face of law exposed. How can the system effect justice through men like these?

She asked for it.
It’s all about money.
They have made it a business.
It is consensual most of the time.

This is how policemen – keepers of the law and protectors of innocent – view rape in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).

Blame the Victim

The hostility is so high, in fact , that the very cops who should be protecting the women and potential victims don’t think twice before hurling them into harm’s way.  Shockingly, they are fine to even violate the Indian law themselves!

A month ago, the outrageous apathy of our police towards rape victims was in full display when the Noida Police revealed the identity of a minor girl who was brutally gang-raped in a moving car. If that was not enough, the Noida Superintendent of Police cast aspersions on the girl’s character at a press conference. Besides the fact that, by doing so, the police flagrantly violated the law of the land – section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code defines the disclosure of the identity of rape victims as an offence punishable by up to two years of imprisonment

Somewhere something has gone completely wrong with Indian society’s mindset.  It is strangely masochistic and sadistic and there is a celebration of that!  One had raised the same questions sometime back and also the parallels between our handling of the anti-corruption movement (another example of a “social rape” by the Government this time of the ordinary people) and how we handle rape victims.

The way career-activists – who can’t seem to get tired of talking and writing tomes on fairness and equality and equitable distribution rejoiced in the complete annihilation of entire team of anti-corruption movement and the vengeance with which they attacked those selfless people who fought with little regard for reward, was very instructive.  It was almost as if someone who prided in keeping a watch on the morality of society had turned against the very concept of someone taking the fight to the real quarters.  Where it mattered the most.

The attack on that team was unbridled sadism (with masochism built in).  It is the same here.  If as a cop – or even as a normal citizen, you see women being victimized, unless you have no daughters or have no female in your entire family, you would think twice before treating things the way these cops are doing.  If it can happen to someone else’s daughter, it can happen to yours as well.  Taking action against a rapist is not just important because someone else’s daughter’s life is in peril, but also because your own daughter’s day are limited!!

So, why do we behave that way?

Over-confidence of Power

When the Nazis were becoming a power, the best way to safe guard yourself was to join them.  To be a part of the corrupt mindset and find safety in that, since opposing that force had become unsustainable.  That is a tipping point.  When opposing a demonic presence in your midst is definitely worse than joining it.  That is a VERY dangerous point.

I reckon that in many ways, Indian society is very close to that tipping point, where those who want to assert lawlessness and their rule of injustice will do anything to remain on the top.  And those below them have little choice or motivation to oppose advance of such lawlessness.  The demonic presence in our midst makes its home very solid.  To dislodge such a presence will eventually take a toll of untold violence and death.  It has always happened and will continue to be asked of people who can’t wake up to their folly!

The rapes in Delhi and their continuation points to a far worse future than it may seem superficially.