• Adv. Nandita Hooda

India lives up to its name as one of the most dangerous countries for women when a father sends his 9-year-old daughter to play and fetch water and then two hours later finds her raped, murdered and cremated. All this takes place in the capital of the country in broad daylight. What is even more shocking is that when the perpetrators were confronted by the girl’s mother, they had the audacity to suggest that the police and the doctors would only make life more difficult for her, that she did not have the kind of money required to actually avail their help and that the best way forward was to keep it a secret and move on. They also had the nerve to tell the mother that the doctors will only cut up and disfigure her daughter while they themselves were burning her body at the pyre.

The criminal justice system in India, as admitted widely, is abysmal and the common man’s distrust in it is not unfounded. This is one of the reasons why the perpetrators had the courage to diss on it and suggest that the remedy will be worse than the disease. But this couple did not back down in their pursuit of justice for their daughter. Their bravery was lauded by many and support came from many corners. However, our present government whose only obsession is the utopian portrayal of our country, however far from reality it may be, did not sit well with the victims’ voice reaching the masses. The present government has done almost everything in its power to suppress journalistic freedoms which is clear from the fact that during their rule India has slipped to 142nd rank out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. In such conditions with curtailed freedoms of the press when responsible and influential leaders of the country like Shri Rahul Gandhi step upto support the victims, the ruling government instead of acting on the well-intentioned advice only indulge in dirty politics and whitewashing the gory details. Before any major media attention was attracted by the incident, on August 04, 2021, the Former Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi met with the family of the deceased girl to get a lay of the land and strategize their fight for justice.

Since this brought to light the profound failures of the current government in providing a basic sense of safety to its citizens, all efforts were put not in making up for the losses but in discrediting the messenger. After indiscriminate FIRs being filed against news channels, papers and web portals that report the harsh facts of the country, the BJP government has now found ways to even find fault in the simple act of Shri Rahul Gandhi of meeting with the victim’s family. This conduct of the ruling government has become routine. In September 2020, the body of a 19-year-old Dalit girl was hurriedly cremated by the authorities in Hathras after she was raped. Curfew like conditions were imposed in that area and family members were not allowed to speak to the media. Many members of the press were detained and sent back. In the Kathua rape case also, where an 8-year-old girl was abducted, gang-raped and murdered, press was curtailed. There the reaction of the BJP ministers was so anti-victim that they had joined a protest in support of the accused men. In such mass distortion of facts and oppression of free press, it becomes the solemn duty of the opposition party and its senior members to take the lead in bringing the truth to the fore. It is not a secret that this heinous incident could have gone unreported if not for Shri Gandhi’s visit and support to the victims. Whatever the cost may be if leaders like Rahul Gandhi who have unapologetically spoken truth to power on matters like Rafael deals, farmers’ rights and Pegasus keep going forward undeterred, there is still hope for our country.