DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI presents, in the light of the recent Ruchika Girhotra case of molestation, a critical study of discrimination meted out to minorities, particularly Muslims, at the hands of the various government institutions as well as authorities.
Is discrimination in the genes of Bharat? Is the feeling of high and low in the blood of our nation? Have we two yardsticks to judge the citizens of the multi-religious country? And, finally what is the touchstone or the criterion of the paranoid judgement?
These uncomfortable questions have, once again, crossed many a mind recently while listening to the debates on the Ruchika Girhotra case at various fora.
A recent study carried out by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre, a U.S. think-tank, also says India stands at number 2 position when it comes to social hostility. The study puts Pakistan at third place, just below Bharat. For a dubious certificate in this regard, why bother to go to the United States? The eminent Jurist and President of the Bar Association of India also holds the opinion that Indian laws have not been successful in preventing discrimination.
The former Chief Justice of India, Mr. A.M. Ahmadi has also said recently that social justice is yet to be done with the minorities of the country. The Sachar Committee Report and the Liberhan Commission findings, prove the point.
DISEASE OF HEART
What havoc this disease of heart plays in the body politic is not unknown to plural India. The problem is it is through various laws and massive reservations alone that the government tries, and has tried to eliminate the malaise. These superficial efforts are tantamount to treating a patient having high fever covering with slabs of ice. No honest and imaginative effort has ever been made to change the heart of the avid practitioners believing in the hidebound caste system. The Ruchika case however nothing to do with discrimination or caste system. The Ruchika Girhotra case is a classic case of lasciviousness coupled with vengeance and retribution. The budding tennis player was molested 19 years ago.
Before proceeding further let’s note what molestation is or means. According to various dictionaries molestation means “to trouble” or “to accost with sinister intentions”.
The teenager’s ordeal started with bringing her humiliation to the school where she had been studying since class 1. She was rusticated for “not depositing her fee (Rs. 30)” in time. The molester, who then was Inspector General of Harayana slapped six fictitious cases of car and auto-rickshaw theft on her brother Ashu, who was also subjected to third degree treatment. Her parents were hounded by plainclothesmen. Stones were hurled at her house by the admirers of the IG. His subordinates would break windows of her house. All complaints went in vain. Completely helpless, her parents left the city and in utter frustration the poor girl committed suicide after three years of her molestation. A friend of the victim Ms Aradhna, now settled in Australia, and her parents were the only persons who refused to be cowed down. The court verdict, after agonisingly long wait was pronounced “six months jail” to the tormenter.
JUDICIAL MOCKERY
When the judgement came, it looked as if the entire system of justice had been judicially mocked at. It appeared as if the Constitution itself had been convicted. The nation felt humbled rather humiliated. The verdict only added insult to injury.
Mind it “it was not the worst of Bharat. The worst of Bharat was silence of three chief ministers under whose the shameless villain they promoted him from rank to rank. Understandably he had promoted their causes also. Had he? It was the quietude of the MPs and MLAs and the bureaucracy and social workers that chose to turn their faces from the sleaze. It was the passive attitude of the whistle blowers, if any, which preferred to be vegetated instead of standing up like a rock in the defence of a helpless girl and her hapless parents.
Had the print and electronic media not taken up the issue in right earnest, the situation would have been different from what it is today. Now everybody who is somebody is concerned. The Law and Justice Minister and the Union Home Minister are doing their best to provide proper justice for the one who had subverted justice earlier with the help of his starred and well-starched uniform. The CBI has become active. Here, however, it would not be inappropriate to quote from an editorial of The Hindu (December 30, 2009) “In the Shopian case involving the suspicious death of two Kashmiri women, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the circumstances of their death, went a step further and filed criminal charges against a number of individuals who had allegedly sought to incriminate the security forces in the incident. But the same CBI, which took up the Rathore case and came across indisputable evidence of police vendetta against his victim’s brother, did not see fit to file charges against Rathore and all the subordinate policemen involved in the malicious prosecution of the young man on bogus accusations of auto theft….” (emphasis added).
The enthusiasm rather zeal being shown now by some ministers is worth noting. The Minister for Law and Justice Mr Veerappa Moily wants to initiate proceedings of abetment of suicide against the former top cop. Mr P. Chidambaram, the Union Home Minister might ask the accused to return the police medal.
It goes without saying that in 2002, on the order of the Supreme Court, the charge of abetment to suicide had been dropped. Under Section 306 a 3-member bench of the Apex Court can however overrule the earlier decision.
What has to be noted is that DGP Rathore had always an upper hand at various stages of the judicial process to thwart any investigation against him. It is in this context that the public demands fixing of responsibility on all those who shielded the culprit.
MANY RUCHIKAS
Now other Ruchika-like cases are surfacing here and there. The reason is the ever-galloping curve of crimes against women.
In 2007, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, seven of the 10 fastest rising crimes in Bharat were those against women. The number of cognizable crimes rose by under 5 per cent over the previous year, dowry deaths registered an increase of 15 per cent, cruelty by husband and relatives 14 per cent, kidnapping and abduction of females 13 per cent, importation of girls 12 per cent and sexual harassment 11 per cent. Rape and molestation cases grew by a more modest 6-7 per cent.
It is worth mentioning that in the light of a Times of India study, the policemen of Delhi do not register FIRs in 90 per cent cases.
A few cases: Eleven years ago in a Vadodara village in Gujarat, a 13-year old girl was raped by a powerful Congress MLA’s son and his friend. The case is still at the stage of witnesses. One does not see any expression of concern for her in the ranks of Congress in Gujarat or at the Centre. Is it so because the victim happens to be a Dalit or because her tormenter is related to Congress?
In January 1997, a tribal woman from Dausa in Rajasthan was abducted and raped in Noida by Madhukar Tandon. The rapist is said to be a former DIG of Police and is absconding now. We ask: is a period of 13 years not enough for the police of Rajasthan to arrest a criminal in uniform? Is the apathy because of the rapist’s police credentials or the Dalit credentials of the victim?
Bilquis Bano, who was six months pregnant, was gang-raped in May 2005 in the post-Godhra Riots. Her baby-daughter and 17 other relatives were butchered allegedly by the Modi-backed rioters.
Recall: Did any Union Law and Justice Minister raise his voice against the rape of Bilquis and murder of her relatives?
The Mumbai-based Ishrat Jahan, a college student, was killed in cold blood in a fake encounter by the Detection of Crime Branch officials near Ahmedabad in June 2004. Did you hear any expression of concern by any minister at this murder during the last six years?
There appears to be some grain of truth in the report of Pew Research Centre of America. Those, who deny justice particularly to a minority victim, forget that their disquieting act shakes the foundations of democracy and poise and equilibrium of society.