Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues.
In male supremacist societies like ours, the male viewpoint dominates civil society as the objective standard for everything from sports to law and administration. Under its aegis, males mostly tend to dominate over females and children as heads of households, legal and administrative machinery and sports bodies. The same system, cutting across race, caste and communities, is replicated in Indian families and kinship groups. When racism, sexism and politics think along the same lines, male dominance becomes invisible to the system until a female victim can take her humiliation no more and demands justice from the democratic state.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
A problem arises here each time the female has been victimised, because the perpetrator is often more socially, politically and economically powerful and networked into the system than the female is. Nothing is easy for a female victim of sexual abuse. From lodging an FIR, approaching the political bosses who control the institutions and the court, and, if they order the police to “see to it”, getting them to speed up the probe (as mandated clearly in the new version of anti-rape laws and POCSO Act) and incarcerate the guilty before they can harm the victim again, the accused use every connection they have to wriggle out and portray the victim as guilty of lying.
Moreover, coercion is seen as consent, and hugs and pats recorded in public cameras are interpreted as normal shows of “fatherly affection”. “Show us visual proof and bring witnesses”, they ask the victim, fully aware that such incidents have no witnesses other than the abuser and the abused and are not recorded behind the closed doors of bosses’ rooms.
Also Read: Wrestling Patriarchy: The Herculean Task of India’s Sportswomen
True, in a democratic state where gender equality is ensured by the constitution, no law gives men the right to molest women. But several recent incidents of rape-and-murder reveal that when our rape laws are actually enforced on the ground, they do not seriously undermine the terms of men’s entitlement to women, mostly vulnerable female juniors.
When justice is expedited, as in the case of the recent Meerut murder, it is mostly driven by caste or communal pressure groups and influencers who control large vote banks. It was unsurprising, therefore, that the Delhi police dragged its feet in registering the case and finally needed to be ordered by the apex court to record the FIR from three female victims. These victims of sexual predation by the head of the national wrestling body were some of India’s top female wrestlers. But their alleged molester happened to be a very powerful BJP MP from an important state like UP.
As the probe began, a strange series of tweets surfaced on May 31, citing unnamed “top police sources” that the police had not found substantial proof against the alleged perp. The media channels began running the story. Questions were raised by supporters of the wrestlers. How could sensitive and conclusive information reach the media even as the probe was ongoing? Soon, the police announced on Twitter (taking care to include a post in Hindi) that the earlier news was “wrong”. A final and full report was yet to be filed with the apex court. All tweets were then suddenly deleted.
Propaganda News Agency ANI gets fact checked by Delhi Police.
Now you know who their sources are. pic.twitter.com/jZsf31LJZX— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) May 31, 2023
Meanwhile, the alleged perpetrator has been loudly telling all who may hear him how the allegations levelled against him (one of those under POCSO) are baseless and that the complainants just want him hanged for political reasons. He will gladly accept any punishment by the court, but first, the complainants (including a minor) must provide admissible proof through CCTV videos, photos or eyewitnesses first.
The MP, who has headed the Wrestlers’ Federation of India for over a decade, also claimed that he was called “the god of wrestling” for India’s rise among the global top five in wrestling. He was recently busy organising a maha rally of Hindu religious leaders in Ayodhya, demanding that the revised anti-rape laws, including the harsh provisions under POCSO, be softened if not deleted. He has now decided not join the meet.
Also Read: Wrestlers’ Protest: Brij Bhushan Cancels ‘Grand’ Ayodhya Meet
Several news channels quoted the MP saying that POCSO was being misused all over India and that he and his supporters would force the government to review it. A video also surfaced in which a man claiming to be an uncle of the minor wrestler was heard saying that complainants Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia had conspired against the WFI chief. This video also revealed the minor wrestler’s identity, deemed a criminal offence under the provisions of POCSO. The Delhi Commission for Women has demanded a police probe.
Meanwhile, senior Rajya Sabha MP and legal stalwart Kapil Sibal has also questioned the non-implementation of POCSO provisions, which mandate that the alleged abuser of a minor be arrested immediately for this non-bailable crime. Justice Khanna once pointed out that wrongful acquittals encourage criminality and also erode the public’s faith in the justice system. This is what leads to those sordid shootouts and knifings in our towns and villages, where some desperate sufferers choose to take justice into their own hands.
India being a vast country with numerous socio-cultural and economic strata, it is perhaps time for the state to separate the investigating arm of the Indian police from that portion which deals with general problems of law and order. An overburdened police force and judiciary (which as of now have 4.5 crore pending cases) alone are not responsible for this travesty of justice in a crime as complex as this one involving an influential MP from the ruling party.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh preparing for his Ayodhya maha rally. Photo: Twitter/@b_bhushansharan May 26, 2023.
“Why did the wrestlers wait for so long?” some ask. We need to see how rapes are not random acts. They always have a solid context: inequality both at home and the workplace, including not just offices but also gyms. There is ample evidence from women that most sexual predators in show business and sports – where touching or physically handling young girls is part of their job – often take advantage of local power nodes and networking to share their victims.
Unless these contexts are analysed and the networking broken and restructured, even the most progressive laws will only scratch the surface. In most women’s experience, our laws for freedom of speech do not protect them from male stalkers in cyberspace, who are followed by well-known and powerful males in public life. Our laws of child custody or domestic abuse similarly help the males more, since they usually have better means and social status and can afford better lawyers.
Tweaking the laws against rape and abuse in favour of women and minors was admirably done by the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which mandated bringing necessary changes in criminal law and sensitising the judiciary to real gender inequalities. Justice Leila Seth, one of the members of this august body, quoted the words of the wise Judge Curtis Raleigh:
“The law should not be seen to sit limply, while those who defy it go free, and those who seek its protection lose hope.”
Mrinal Pande is a writer and veteran journalist.