Anger Management

Every news channel or newspaper that I look at these days has this four letter word splashed all over, R-A-P-E. I’m not just talking about the Delhi Nirbhaya/Amanat gang rape story. There are new cases every day of sexual harassment, molestation and/or rape. And no, surprising as it may sound to some, these cases are not restricted to Delhi alone! While north India may seem to be the epicentre for these crimes, the problem, and hence, the solution are definitely nation-wide. However, this post is not about what that solution should be. This post is merely about reactions of the people against these crimes.

What the Delhi gang rape incident managed to do was to get the youth across India onto the streets, collectively protesting against something they felt strongly about. The last such endeavour I remember was the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement. Unfortunately, both these movements seem to have wavered after what seemed to be steps in the right direction. While the Hazare-Kejriwal movement ended with in-fighting that the ‘aam aadmi’ didn’t much care for, the anti-rape protest in Delhi was nothing short of a violent riot. To top it all, there are rumours that some women in the rally were actually groped by drunken male protestors! As the saying goes, ‘It happens only in India!’

Of course, I am sure that Delhi Police did its fair share in turning this seemingly peaceful protest march into the havoc that we saw on TV with its tear gas, water cannons and lathi charge onslaught. To make matters worse, unresponsive remarks by the people in power instigated the crowds even more. The crowds were screaming out their opinion but nobody seemed to be listening, nobody seemed to be taking responsibility – pretty much like our Call Centres! Naturally, sustained anger without any cajoling or a concrete response from the government was bound to boil over into something dramatic. And surely enough, there was violence – stones being pelted, police personnel being assaulted, vehicles being smashed. It is ironic that folks demanding stronger laws and punishment against thugs had turned into thugs themselves.

For the folks who couldn’t be a part of the protest, the obvious outlet was social networking sites. All through last week, I was shocked to see Facebook status messages, page shares and likes from the people around me. Educated and normal, everyday people demanding atrocious sentences to be delivered upon the rapists – stoning, public hanging and the like. People were quoting examples of what happens to sexual offenders in Saudi Arabia and North Korea. There were even graphic images being circulated across social forums of battered and bloodied men being dragged through the streets of Iran, of men who were simply left to the mercy of the public. Yes, we were outraged at the Delhi incident and are angry beyond belief. The rapists deserve nothing less than the capital punishment – I agree! But do we really want India to turn into an Afghanistan or an Iraq?