So, BBC came out with a documentary called "India's Daughter" about the ghastly rape that took place on December 12, 2012 in Delhi.
This documentary interviewed the people who were involved in the incident - the driver of the bus for instance.
Mukesh Singh admits that he drove the bus while the incident took place, but denies that he took actual part in it. But judging by the comments that he's made about Jyoti, the victim, and about girls in general, he's no less guilty than the others.
In the interview that's part of the documentary, he says that Jyoti herself was responsible for her rape, and that she shouldn't have been out at that time of night, and with a boy at that.
He says, to quote, "A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy." He goes on to say that the rape and beatings were their (the aggressors') way of teaching a lesson to Jyoti and the boy.
This thought has been a part of discussion in India for a fairly long time now - the question of whether girls should stay at home, wear "proper clothes", and, well, we all know the drill by now, or if they can be allowed the independence to explore their world the way they want to, without fear of slander, or, you know, slaughter. So, in a way, some of these comments don't really come as a surprise.
What's appalling is what he says after that.
Quote: "When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her back after "doing her", and only hit the boy."
Wait there's more.
"The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girls like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now, when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl."
To start with, "the criminal types"? As opposed to decent people like Mukesh himself?
I might have excused his statements about how it's the girl's fault and how she should be under home imprisonment for her own safety as the deranged opinion of a disturbed mind, but the last two quotes?
Is this an isolated case - do only very rare bastards think this way, or is this how opinion is led in India? Is this how the people who defend rapists for being out of their depth really think? Scarier - is this how the people who are responsible for making policies and enforcing rules really think?
India's moving forward slowly - we're progressing in many ways. Our communications are improving, our infrastructure might in a hundred years be at par with private development, our thought process is changing - we're starting to take responsibility for the state of the country, and have started to notice the number of things "this is India's culture" tries to cover up.
That's great. Whereas I'm proud of the support that Jyoti, and other victims like her are getting from a large part of the country, whereas I'm happy that women's safety and right to independence are being discussed as one issue, I'm scared of the people who will take something as disgusting as rape and turn it around on the victim. I'm scared of the people who, whether they really believe it or not, will blame the woman for not being careful enough, traditional enough, dressed in enough clothes. I'm mostly scared of the person who, when he reads what the driver said about how Jyoti should just have kept quiet, or how the fuss being made over this incident will make it worse for future rape victims, even in the privacy of his own head, thinks, "he has a point."
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