It is very unfortunate that we are living in such a society where slogans are raised only and the ground condition is something different. In the state of beti Bachao beti padao why Asifa was murdered assaulted, raped. Where was the BJP government where the 8 year old innocent poor girl was treated with electric shocks..It is impossible not to be moved to tears after reading the terrible details about the Kathua rape case. From being drugged, to being gang raped by men who wanted to ‘satisfy their lust’, to being strangled and bludgeoned to death in two horrific attempts, to her tiny withered body being dumped in a forest, Asifa’s was treated to inhumanity that is unimaginable. Like many others, I am also walking through my days unable to shake off her brutalized face. How can our nation produce such depraved souls? And how can they be protected under the guise of religion and nationalism? How did we go from #BetiBachao to #Balatkari Co Bachao? Today, we are seeing the true face of humanity and it is ugly. But what is even more disgusting is to call Asifa’s ‘the new Nirbhaya’. Why? Because it shows us that we haven’t learnt our lesson. We haven’t had enough. We haven’t changed. When we call another rape victim by the name of India’s most brutalized rape victim, it shows us that we’ve made peace with the brutality of rape and with what happens to its victims. It seemed another isolated, horrific episode of sexual violence in India, perpetrated against a powerless girl by brutal men. But in the months since Asifa’s murder, the case has become another battleground in India’s religious wars. Hindu nationalists have turned it into a rallying cry – not calling for justice for Asifa, but rushing to the defense of the accused. All of the men arrested are Hindu, and Asifa’s nomadic people, the Bakerwals, are Muslim. Some of the police officers who investigated the case are also Muslim, and for that reason, the Hindu activists say, they cannot be trusted.
The lawyers of Kathua who proudly feel that they were duty bound to ensure justice by subverting the process of investigations, and later obstructing the crime branch from presenting he charge sheet have thrown their oath to dust by indulging into an unethical act of high voltage drama just to remain in relevance and mount pressure on the state institutions which certainly did not happen. The officers retreated to a judge’s house later in the evening to complete the paperwork. Protests and counter protests are now spreading. On Wednesday, much of Kathua, a small town in Kashmir near where Asifa was killed, was shut down by demonstrators; including dozens of Hindu women who helped block a highway and organize a hunger strike. “They are against our religion,” said Bimla Devi, one of the protesters. If the accused men aren’t released, she said, “we will burn ourselves.” Police officials say they have physical evidence and DNA tests linking the defendants to Asifa’s death. They also say they have interviewed more than 130 witnesses, who “unequivocally corroborated the facts that emerged.”
Attempts to derail case several prominent members of India’s dominant political force, the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party, are pushing to have the case taken out of the hands of the state police, arguing that the Central Bureau of Investigation would be a better, more neutral agency to handle it. Many suspect this is an attempt to win leniency for the accused, noting that the bureau is an arm of the central government, which the Bhartiya Janata Party controls. Crime inside Hindu temple that a Hindu temple is at the center of the crime makes this case even more combustible. Police say that Sanji Ram, the temple’s custodian, devised the plan as a way to terrorize the Bakerwals, and that he enlisted a nephew and some friends to kidnap and kill Asifa. Police say they believe Asifa was selected simply because she was by herself and “a soft target.” According to Times of India, the family of the raped and murdered eight-year-old quietly abandoned their home in Rasana village out of fear late on Tuesday after the Jammu Bar Association called a strike to protest the J&K police’s “mishandling” of the investigation into the case. According to media reports, her father Muhammad Yusuf Pujwala has left for an unknown place along with his wife, two children and livestock. Earlier, it was said that the family was planning to leave for Kashmir next month. We have a choice either raise your voice or be a silent spectator. Imagine what goes through the mind of an 8 yr old as she is drugged, held captive, gang raped over days and then murdered.
We read incidents of rape every single day; obviously because a woman is raped every 20 minutes in our country. Yet, we react only when the rape is grossly heinous. Our anger is as cheap as our lives. As a nation, we’ve become desensitized to rape. We still need gross human violations to have our collective conscience shaken. Civil society and Leadership of Kashmir have a moral duty to stand by minorities of Jammu. They have to show courage and honesty in standing up for truth.
( The author is a Student of Law At Kashmir Law College Srinagar.Her views are personal)
