The
production has been banned in India, but I know for a fact that many high
officials, perhaps even Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, have viewed it.
In
some ways I can understand why the Government moved to block distribution of India’s Daughter. It contains a
confronting interview with one of the rapists, Mukesh Singh, totally
unrepentant and actually blaming his victim for the savage assault.
“A
decent girl would not roam the streets at 9pm…housework and housekeeping are
for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night, doing wrong things and
wearing wrong clothes,” was his excuse for what he and the others had done,
adding that if the girl had not struggled so much she would have been allowed
to leave the bus otherwise unharmed.
Worse
still was a defence lawyer who supported his client’s attitude and went further
saying that even if his own daughter or sister had got herself into a similar
situation and was raped, he would pour petrol over her and set her alight.
No
matter that Singh was in the company of her boyfriend, who was also badly
beaten. No woman should be out at night unless accompanied by her husband,
brother, father, grandfather or some other male relative. Fortunately this man
is now subject to discipline by the Indian Bar Association.
Obviously
this is not the kind of image the Government wants as it seeks to portray a
modernising nation preparing to take its place among the world’s great powers.
Nor does it constantly want to be reminded of the fact that a rape in India
occurs on average every 20 minutes.
Equally
disturbing were the mobs calling for the rapists to be strung up. Four of the six have been convicted and face
the death penalty, a fifth is a juvenile whose maximum sentence can be only
three years imprisonment and a sixth was found dead in his cell, a presumed
suicide.
To
balance this there were the more measured views of a senior female judge, and
younger friends of Ms Singh and her boyfriend. While understandably disgusted
and bitter at what had taken place, they sensed the real problem lies with the patriarchal
nature of Indian society where, in the most conservative areas, women are still
treated as possessions – valuable possession perhaps, but possession
nonetheless.
The
judge was right when she said education was the only effective, long-term cure
for this problem. Other contributors were also right in pointing out that the
lynch-law mentality has no place in Indian society.
I
have been a life-long opponent of the death penalty, or judicial murder as I
prefer to call it. The first aim of punishment should be rehabilitation and at
this point I cannot help but mention the situation of Australian drug criminals
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran whose rehabilitation in an Indonesian jail has
been apparent to all, but who still face imminent execution.
But
what of Mukesh Singh, who shows no remorse and actually seeks to portray
himself as the victim of what he and the others did?
What
greater punishment could there be for him to spend decades in jail while
outside Indian society gradually changes (as I believe it must and will) to one
of mutual respect and equality among the sexes; watching those with his brutal
attitudes die off to be replaced by men and women who have created a more
enlightened age.
What
greater punishment for him to sit in his prison cell year after year,
forgotten, irrelevant?
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