Mrinal Pande in her informative article in Ravivari
Jansatta dated 17th Feb. 2013 referred to traditional Indian
mentality governing our attitude towards various aspects of our life. Of late
many incidents took place which showed that even in this era of globalization
and liberalization when many traditions are giving way to so- called modern
norms the typical traditional Indian mentality of inequality and exploitation
still reins our attitude to life.
One such incident was the brutal
rape and murder of a young women on 16th Dec. 2012 which shook the
capital and the members of civil society were on the roads of capital city Delhi
Secondly it is our traditional
mindset to pay back in the same coin. Naturally securing justice according to
this mentality the killers should get killed, not creating such environment
that in future innocent persons do not loose their life and liberty without any
rime and reason. Therefore, the spokespersons of the movement were demanding
new law prescribing death sentence for rape knowing fully well that no law
could be applied with retrospective effect. There were enough reports showing
omissions and commissions in the implementation of existing laws that gave free
hand to the perpetrators of crime. But there was no pressure on the authorities
to get the officers responsible for these omissions and commissions punished. They
were not made accountable inspite of Verma Commission’s strictures on Delhi
Police. Now the whole attentions is on Verma Commissions Report for which the
autonomous women’s movement is congratulating itself and the ordinance issued
by the Government.
In the traditional Indian society we have the culture of
treating some as more equal than others. This was fully reflected here. The
anger was on perpetrators of crime and
lower level police functionaries. It was being repeatedly asserted that they
come from the same background therefore anti women.(There is enough data to
prove that at higher level too insensitivity towards women is rampant.) The
difficult conditions in which these lower level police functionaries operate
was not their concern. The higher level officers who have all the facilities, and
powers were not made accountable for the failures of the lower level ones. One
got an impression that it were the poor rural or migrant who made the
environment for women unsafe not the alienation of city life.
Another incident which
showed how deep rooted was caste in the Indian mindset was the
observation made by Prof. Ashish Nandi at Jaipur literary festival. It is
interesting to note that nobody not even
Prof. Nandi justified the words he used. But all of his supporters were trying
to cover up in the name of freedom of expression. At the same time protesters
were being told that they could not grasp the seriousness and originality of
Prof. Nandi’s ideas. In this way they were trying to divert the attention from the main issue whether Prof. Nandi
violated the Act enacted to prevent atrocities on SCs and STs. In the process they completely ignored Article 17 of our Constitution abolishes untouchability. They were by their arguments indirectly re-enforcing it. Finally Supreme
Court advised Prof Nandi to be careful in future. But the supporters still did
not give in and continued their defense of Prof. Nandi. In this whole exercise
they forgot untouchability . To make this fundamental Right a reality for the SCs using castist language
has been made illegal. How can rights of untouchables get priority over upper
castes right to freedom of expression is a moot question. Luckily
the Supreme Court Prof. Nandi not to hurt the feelings of people by his
utterances.
