Is a woman’s body a pawn in your hand?

  

On 19^th July,2023 a shocking video of a mob watching a woman being raped and another woman being paraded naked surfaced on social media. I was stunned and outraged. Quickly my numbness  wore off and I started reacting. Tweets after tweets tagging the head of nation, ministers concerned, all statutory bodies was a small way to vent my anger.

And then slowly as nation-wide reactions flooded the social media and the leaders concerned  were compelled to break their silence questions started nudging me.

This incident happened in the first week of May and the FIR was lodged on 18^th May,2023. Not very clear whether the case was reported immediately or there was a delay. But definitely the video was recorded on the day of the crime. Who made this video?  In whose possession was the video for so many weeks? Was the timing to release/leak the video have a political motive? 

No matter what the motive is, the fact is two women were publicly molested and humiliated and one of them raped while a mob watched. A statement of one of the victim indicates police presence when all this was happening. The fact also is police did not make a single arrest till 20^th July until a national outrage compelled them to do so and one of them was arrested.

 

It also fills me with deep anger that the Chief Minister of the state concerned behaves as if this is a sudden news for him especially when more than 2 months have already passed after the incident. How does a Chief Minister not even know about such a huge mob violence in his own state? Is it an intelligence failure? Is it a break-down of the entire law and order system in the state? Or is it a calculated inaction? And how many more such instances have happened in that state in the last three months? 

Then I look around on the larger happenings around the country based on what is happening on social media.  The video is the focal point of all discussions, reading between lines one wonders are these people really concerned about the victims or is this a weapon to hit back at their political opponents.

Simultaneously, the other side is now finally speaking. All statements being made to show stringent action is being taken. Why were all them silent for so many months when the state was burning and a large number of women and children were pushed into relief camps?

Who benefits from this silence? Who is benefitting with infight between communities?

While political silence is deafening, the silence of the media all these months is also frightening. Where are the investigative journalists? Where is third pillar of democracy? How come they did not come to know of such a dastardly public act? Who is playing safe and for what purpose? 

But the most pathetic of all is how depraved is humanity! There are those among us who watch in silence when women are raped right in front of their eyes…there are million others who will not only record this but will also disseminate it again & again. Can we face our own self in the mirror?  

Ironically for me, eight years back I had started a campaign against rape and gang rape videos being circulated and for the last few years we are fighting an ongoing battle in the Supreme Court to make social media platforms accountable for the content on their platforms and today a viral  rape video is the reason for the nation coming to know about atrocities in a state where internet has been shut down for the last three months, a viral video becoming the reason for all silences being broken including that of the Apex Court. And I wonder, have we moved even an inch from 2015? Rape videos continue to be made with impunity and rapists rest with ease confident never to be caught. 

 

At the end of the day, one question lingers in my mind? Is women’s safety a priority for any political leader? Or is it a weapon to be used to gain brownie points in an election? Is woman’s body, her honour, her dignity just a political pawn for anybody and everybody to throw around. 

A belief system I always carried is when an elected leader is given a responsible position within the government he or she should cease to be from a caste, creed or religion and even a political party. This person’s identity should be only as an ‘Indian’ and nothing more. He/she represents India, is a voice of all Indians in all its diversity. In fact I am also of the belief that such persons should not be allowed to campaign for any elections. Afterall if they are in power they already have the opportunity to demonstrate all their good work so what is the need for further branding.  

 

When a state burns and mobs with impunity rape and humiliate women in public it means to me a massive failure of political leadership.  When a woman’s body is used as a weapon of war it means that elected leaders have failed in their responsibility to safeguard the interests of all and a woman is being a made a pawn in this power war. 

 

This is not acceptable…this will not be tolerated.  

 

And finally, although not the right way to do it but the ‘video’ has made its point… now it is important to remember every time it is  re-posted and shared somewhere out there two young women are revictimized again and again. 

We failed in protecting them…at least let us not be party to retraumatising them.    

 

 

              

A LEADER WHO TOUCHED MY SOUL-A TRIBUTE TO OOMMEN CHANDY SIR

 

From the time I got into the domain of social activism many of my friends and relatives have asked me whether I would join electoral politics. To their disappointment my answer has been always negative for I have somehow built a strong reservation about political leaders. How I developed it…or where it came from, I have no clue. But politics and all that it represents is something that I have carefully avoided. Perhaps it is for the same reason that I mindfully kept away from cultivating any relationship with any political leader. On, their part since I do not make any business sense in terms of ‘vote bank’ they have also maintained their distance. 

 

So, it was a pleasant surprise for me when my good friend Shafi Mather whom I had met in the TED Conference in 2009 called me and told me to come urgently to Kerala to make a presentation on human trafficking before the Honorable Chief Minister. This was in 2011. 

I rushed to Kerala not knowing what to expect. With a minimum of fuss, I was conducted to the CM’s chamber and I saw that a projector and screen was arranged at one end. It was a temporary arrangement. The first time I saw Shri Oommen Chandy the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala I was blown away. His twinkling smile captivated me and what happened next humbled me to no end. OC Sir as I went on to call him in the later years was in a meeting. He excused himself from the meeting, came towards me, wished me and courteously seated me on the sofa profusely apologizing about a few minutes delay as he had to sort out some urgent matter.

The only face of OC Sir that I saw 

I was an absolute ‘nobody’, I had not even got my civilian honor then. But here was a man who was honoring me with great respect just based on what he had heard from a trusted aide. When I made my presentation a little while later, I could see tears in the corner of his eyes several times. The first meeting ended with OC Sir assuring me to do something concrete. While there were no great promises made or pledges taken, I left OC Sir’s chamber with a great sense of contentment of meeting somebody whose grace left me both at ease and at the same time speechless. 

 

When somebody asked me what was the outcome of the meeting with CM I simply said ‘time will tell’. And definitely time did tell the amazing level of commitment OC Sir had about safety of women and children and his extraordinary ability to bring diverse personalities together. When the committee was constituted a few months later to draft a policy he made sure at every step even in the constitution of the committee I was in the loop. Perhaps it was that unconditional faith and respect that made me put my heart and soul to draft the ‘Nirbhaya Policy’. During this course I had several opportunities to meet him and brief him about the progress of the committee and every time I would be left with these confused feelings on how much is this one individual taking up on his shoulders. There was always a crowd in his chambers. He would speak to each one of them. One day I even heard him talking to an Inspector questioning why an FIR was not lodged and in my petty mind it was why is he micro-managing? It took me years to understand what OC Sir was to his people and how his whole life revolved around making every hope and aspiration real for his people.

 

Over the years I was also recipient of his personal care and concern. When I faced backlash for some of my work in Hyderabad, he was perhaps the only one who called up the then Chief Minister and requested to ensure safety for my life. And this he did without me even telling him anything about what I am going through or even requesting for any support. That was OC Sir, a person whom you can rely in the worst of your times without even asking.

When in 2013 I produced my Malayalam feature film on sex trafficking ‘Ente’ I had requested him to come for the premiere. He not only came but he brought the entire assembly with him for he felt every legislator should be sensitized on this subject. This was the first film OC Sir was seeing in 45 years! For the next few months, he would constantly remember the last scene of the film and tell me that it left a deep sense of guilt about how the efforts to ensure safety for women and children were rather inadequate. 

 

Every time OC Sir felt my expertise would be of any help, he immediately called upon me. Never once did he make me feel like an outsider, valuing me for the body of work that I have accomplished and according me the respect I deserve and more. To me those days Cliff House was a comfortable place to quickly update Sir on the various developments related to the implementation of the policy before I rushed back to take the flight back to Hyderabad. 

 

We lost touch after the new ruling party got elected. Our paths crossed once or twice mostly at Cochin Airport. Both the times it was like connecting with a beloved friend eagerly sharing our thoughts on what more can be done. 

 

My ears were tuned to OC Sir and his activities. I watched him handle all the challenges of public life with grace and dignity. With every passing day I realized the need for a political leader like OC Sir who had the capacity to be fair and neutral, had the ability to bring together diverse people, felt deeply for the pain and anxiety of every commoner and had the moral compass of conscience highly embedded in his soul. Today more than ever the country needs such a leader to navigate us through these troubling times.     

 

This morning when I heard OC Sir passed away…for a few minutes I was numb, I could sense deep vacuum, is this the end of an era? No words adequate to pay the right tribute…no thoughts tall enough to capture this brilliant statesman, no gesture big enough to give back what he gave us.

OC Sir…Om Shanti! Till we meet again…        

 

Sunitha Krishnan