Some rapes are more equal than others…

A piece of news item came in Times of India on 2nd May 2009. Here…

It was about a woman who was gangraped in the wee hours of the previous night. It is uncomfortably similar to cases that have happened before in the city.

I waited for four days to see if any follow up article comes up in terms of any police developments that take place. Nothing yet and there is no reason to believe that there are going to be.

The reason unfortunately is not too far to see. The victim is after all a member of the ‘non-influential’ part of the citizenry as can be seen readily from the article and so we play the same game again.

As usual, the nation and the media wakes up only when a member of their own fall victim. Take any case past or from recent memory. MAMC case and more recently the Noida case. The Dhaula Kuan case is eerily similar to this case but since in that case the victim was a DU student, the police swung into action immediately as it did in every other case. Perhaps more pertinently, the cases evoked a host of responses in the media with everyone decrying the lamentable condition of women in the city. Our homes were concerned.

We were concerned. In this case we are not. The difference lies perhaps in the attitude that since the victim was a slum dweller, she was exposed to the risk anyway. Worse, the feeling probably is that – she is not one of us…so it doesnt matter. The english media wont find interested readers for the case, so why pursue…in any case, some news is always ready to dethrone other stories.

No matter what law we make stating the equality of victims in the face of similar crimes, the problem is that justice is also partial to public opinion. Lets not kid ourseleves - Jessica Lal case got a verdict due to public outcry and all the candle light vigils. Modern School is being persecuted for the same reason. Shanno is already lost, as is this unnamed girl – unfortunate victims in the real sense.

The most ironical aspect of the whole case I found was that even though its an election year, the opposition did not take this case as a stick to beat the government. I do not think the case would have been the same if it was one of those who read english newspapers. The politicians dont care either – even though the english newspaper reading population usually votes the least.

Its the attitude, silly….

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