We failed you, Nirbhaya! Please take care of Asifa.

Nirbhaya...... Asifa

Bus....... Temple

Jeans....... Burkha

The problem lies not in the religion one is following. Or in the clothes one is choosing to wear. Or the age-group one belongs to. Or the time and place one is picking to go.

The problem lies in the mentality. The problem lies in the attitude that infants and girls and women are mere objects. The problem lies in the upbringing where we let the young adults believe that it is OK to treat the women folk like dirt. They see this happening in their own houses while growing up. The mother is abused by the father and she goes about ‘allowing it’. The brother is given more preference over the sister and she keeps ‘tolerating it’. The son is given more importance than the daughter and she keeps ‘accepting her fate’.

That is where the seeds are sown. When we subconsciously tell the ‘men’ that it is OK. It is OK to feel superior to your female sibling. It is OK to suppress your wife. It is OK to tell your daughter to ‘be decent’ rather than warning your son for ‘being indecent’. It is OK to eve-tease as soon as you step out of the house. It is OK to outrage the modesty of any woman that you come across on the road, in a bus, at your office or college...!

And it is a vicious cycle. The women, too, inspite of having been victims themselves, continue to perpetuate this disgraceful approach towards other women, alongside men. Being a silent spectator to injustice is as good as being guilty of the injustice itself. 

In the past, we have seen ‘Godmen’ rotting in jail for the abuse of the faith that their ‘devotees’ had in them. We have seen a dog rescuing an infant girl from the roadside garbage pile. We have seen daughters burnt alive for dowry. We have seen female foeticide. We have seen mothers of only daughter/s being taunted and tortured all along. We have seen the casting couch. We thought we had seen it all. What we couldn’t bear to see was a single mother. A lady boss. An unwed mother who has adopted children. A more successful wife. A more accomplished girlfriend. Girls getting glory for our country at the international level. Is this their way to show their frustration towards their incapabilities?  It is like some men have been slapped right in their face and told.... You are not that special, after all. 

The whole country is feeling the anger and the shame. I don’t even know what and how to respond to my children’s questions. The TV and newspapers are full of it. Yes, they are scared. There are various posts online on how to punish these sick rodents. The media is taking its own sweet choices of religious AND political twists and turns to highlight the ‘issue’. The main issue is: Irrespective of religion or age or place or intent.... a rapist IS a rapist. And must be treated like one. Period. Is it that difficult to create and enforce laws to this effect? What are we waiting for? Another candle march? Another online petition? Another rape? They are criminals. Loud and clear. AND THEY NEED TO BE PUNISHED!

We  are, supposedly, a land of ethics and principles and Dharma and Democracy. Clearly, some men have lost all sense and sensibility of living in a civilised society. It is high time we see the true emergence of Dharma. It is high time we see the guilty being rightly punished. It is high time the mothers and wives and sisters and daughters feel safe. In their house and outside it. It is high time the bubble is bursted for these ‘men’. They should be where they belong.  At par with the women. Not above.

It is not that difficult to curb this horrendous act. We need to uphold the law above everything and everyone else. The guilty need to be shown, for once and for all... that no matter ‘who your father is’ or ‘which political party you are connected with’ or ‘no one in your family ever told you your limits’ or ‘how much money you can afford to buy-out law’.... you have NO place in our society. 

Justice is one thing. But it should be such that it should make the others shudder and think twice before even thinking about it. And it should be done NOW. Because justice delayed is justice denied. It is a total mockery and a saga of pain for the affected family. Haven’t they suffered enough? Then, and only then, would we have done justice to our Nirbhayas and Asifas. 

We failed to protect them. That was our first and foremost defeat. It is time to redeem ourselves. It is time to make India safe for our girls, again. It is time to punish the guilty, without any more shameful cover-ups. I just hope it is not like the picnic our ‘celebrities’ are enjoying by popping in and out of the jail, at their own whims and fancies.

Time to rise above this disgrace. No more Nirbhayas and Asifas.