The ‘rare of the rarest’ case

I am not that much of a newspaper girl, nor am I very much bothered by what happens around me. I am the kind who lives in her own sweet world, oblivious of the impacts of the chief minister’s newest reform, or for that matter, how SRK’s new blockbuster is faring at the polls. This morning, unlike all mornings when I almost turn deaf ears to whatever I hear on the radio, I was taken aback to a news that I still cannot digest to be true. The ‘juvenile’ has been released.

I recall a day almost an year ago when I once had a small chit chat with an elderly man who happened to be a non-Indian. Knowing that I am an Indian woman he shared his concern on our safety in India. I was kind of offended by this thought of his and I cleared his doubt with a brisk and a confident smile saying, ‘Of course I am safe. It’s MY country!’

A couple of days before, a friend of mine shared a newspaper clipping saying the juvenile of the Nirbhaya tragedy will be released and given another chance. I dismissed the case, thinking for once on humanity grounds of course. Today when I heard the same on the radio, it affected me in a way the newspaper clipping didn’t. You know why? When I read the newspaper, somewhere down, I had an obvious trust in the judicial system of my country. The clipping not necessarily meant he’d be made free of all charges, right? I believed it was just a media way of publicizing the case. Today, when I hear it on the radio that he actually has been released, it deeply saddens me. I feel it is me who has been denied justice.

With this second chance, the boy lives a good life, or disgraces himself further, I am least bothered. On my mind today are questions for the girl who lost her life to something that is reprehensible to a degree which just cannot be justified in any way other than a capital punishment (which also is by far, less a punishment for such an odious act). She had lost her life then, but today with her offender’s release, she lost her dignity too. And to say he was a juvenile.

On my mind today are questions for the society who will have to accept this person as one among themselves. We might be travelling in a metro with him seated next to us, and we being unaware.

On my mind are questions for the many insane criminals who’ll celebrate this victory of the wrong doer, realizing how hollow our constitution is, where any crime irrespective of how grave it is, can be easily forgiven and forgotten.

On my mind are questions for the court that says ‘we cannot go beyond the law’. Of course the laws can be amended, there just has to be a will for there sure is a way. After all, was this not the ‘rare of the rarest’ case?

On my mind today are questions for the world, who’ll forever take back this image of India where this is the kind of ‘right’ decision taken by the Highest Judicial Authority of the country.

What a system, what a country, what people and what a shame.

On my mind is a question for my own self. Was I wrong when I said I am safe in India? If I ever get to see you again dear elderly, I’ll tell you that living in a country where a mob can beat any man to death just on a rumour of him having beef in his refrigerator, where a minor can brutally rape an innocent and be allowed to roam around free, where a boy can be questioned and abused in public by the cops on being seen with a girl, I AM NOT SAFE.