Three long months have passed since the gory story Kathua is doing rounds. A humanly inconceivable and horrific story of a little girl child belonging to a particular community, who once took her horses out to graze in a near-by forest, a short journey she embarked on not knowing that it would be her last journey. It is a horrendous tale of how an little soul is subjected to barbarity.
While this ghastly incident is enough to send chills down the spine but what is staggeringly surprising is too see how India seems to have woken upto it now after three long months. If this beastly incident took place in early January, why is it still hanging in air when instead the culprits should have been hanged to death immediately after they were identified. It is not just a single crime but a series of heinous crimes committed one after the other. So, for which of the many crimes the criminals would be punished? Is it for abducting, keeping her hostage, sedating and starving her for days together, or for gang-raping her, not once, twice but as many times as the lust of savages was satiated, or for mercilessly murdering her by ripping her body apart and dashing her head with a stone to ensure she was really dead. Would sentencing the culprits to jail (who probably would be released later) minimize the anger and lessen the grief of the victim’s family or would it equate with the pain the little girl went through while being held captive by those monsters.
Pathetically, we live in a kind of country where blatant attempts are made to communalise the crimes like rape and murder, where there is no fear of judiciary, where political parties in power support the rapists, and where issues are politicised to the extent that crime ceases to be a crime and criminals instead of being sent to gallows are garlanded; the living example of which was seen when rallies were taken out to support the culprits involved in the brutal rape and murder case. Yes, such is the land where people are butchered to death outside a temple if they ritualistically slaughter an animal, but nothing is done when a girl is subjected to this horror inside a place of worship. A place where so-called leaders play mute spectators and then one fine morning wake up all of a sudden not because of the call of their conscience but because of the call of people across the globe who started hurling words of shame and disgust on the country which claims to be a democracy and takes utmost pride in it diversity.
While the diabolic crime is more than enough to shock the collective conscience of the civilized people, it is sad to see how PM of the country breaks his silence after three long months to express his much-awaited words of condemnation against the unspeakable atrocities committed over a girl. I firmly believe that it is high time for India to truly work on the words ‘Beti Bachao’ (save a girl child) rather than mere sloganeering it; realise that in a country like India every now and then the honour and integrity of a girl is ripped in pieces. Justice needs to be granted fast so that no other girl comes to this world to get raped and murdered one day.
If the supreme court can confirm death sentence to all the convicts of the horrific Nirbhaya rape case, then the same death penalty should be awarded to the culprits in this heart wrenching rape-murder case. There should be no further procrastination but stringent action must be taken as justice delayed is justice denied.
Bazila Ehsan Pursuing PG in English literature at University of Kashmir