Demand for justice for Delhi gang rape victim loses steam
4 April 2013 1:58 AM GMT
Somewhere around the fag end of December 2012 Facebook was aflame with indignant posts against the 16 December gang rape incident. Every single update on your newsfeed would have had the ‘good citizens’ of this righteous city calling out for severe punishment for the accused. While some called out for the four to be castrated, others demanded that they be put under a road roller and steamrolled. Demanding justice for the gang rape victim was the new cause celebre`. Such was the feverish nature of the protests that the neighborhood halwai-turned-MCD councillor organised candle light vigils in broad daylight. If one did not protest and drip with indignation, there was something wrong with one’s moral fibre.
Fast forward to the end of March. The District Mediation Centre, as the Saket District court is deceptively called, where the trial in the gang rape case is on, wears a barren, almost deserted look. Across the road an incessant stream of SUVs and sedans make a beeline to the shopping malls. The abundance of footfalls in the shopping malls is in sharp contrast to the deathly quiet in the court. With the exception of a few reporters and the stray OB van, there is practically no one here.
Vijay Pal, an auto driver, when asked how many people visit the court these days, had a candid reply,’ Many people would come in the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape, JNU professors to students from the nearby Kamala Nehru college, Now there is no profit, I have to run a shared auto to ferry passengers from the Metro station’.
Across the walk through metal detectors, the lawyers are more circumspect and guarded. Mohammed Hussain, a lawyer, when asked how morally right was it for one of the rape accused to be allowed to give an IAF exam simply said, ‘law will take its own course’. When prodded further about whether the rape accused should be allowed a special diet of milk and fruits to prepare for the exam, he simply said, ‘Let him eat whatever he wants’. His colleague standing right next pointed out that if Vinay Sharma was to clear the exam before the conviction, he could well become India’s only ‘government employee-cum-gang rape convict’.
The most accurate description of the case came from a 62-year-old who used to work as a clerk in MCD. He was at the court on Tuesday to post bail for his son, who had been involved in a brawl. When asked why the gang rape trial had ceased to draw attention he replied, ‘All these social movements, whether it be that of Anna Hazare or justice for the gang rape victim are like volcanoes, they explode but no one comes to clean up the mess afterwards’.
Meanwhile on one of the innumerable Facebook pages dedicated to the victim, a user has posted, ‘What happened to justice for the Delhi gang rape victim? Don’t we care anymore?’ Clearly a question one should ask one’s conscience!
Fast forward to the end of March. The District Mediation Centre, as the Saket District court is deceptively called, where the trial in the gang rape case is on, wears a barren, almost deserted look. Across the road an incessant stream of SUVs and sedans make a beeline to the shopping malls. The abundance of footfalls in the shopping malls is in sharp contrast to the deathly quiet in the court. With the exception of a few reporters and the stray OB van, there is practically no one here.
Vijay Pal, an auto driver, when asked how many people visit the court these days, had a candid reply,’ Many people would come in the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape, JNU professors to students from the nearby Kamala Nehru college, Now there is no profit, I have to run a shared auto to ferry passengers from the Metro station’.
Across the walk through metal detectors, the lawyers are more circumspect and guarded. Mohammed Hussain, a lawyer, when asked how morally right was it for one of the rape accused to be allowed to give an IAF exam simply said, ‘law will take its own course’. When prodded further about whether the rape accused should be allowed a special diet of milk and fruits to prepare for the exam, he simply said, ‘Let him eat whatever he wants’. His colleague standing right next pointed out that if Vinay Sharma was to clear the exam before the conviction, he could well become India’s only ‘government employee-cum-gang rape convict’.
The most accurate description of the case came from a 62-year-old who used to work as a clerk in MCD. He was at the court on Tuesday to post bail for his son, who had been involved in a brawl. When asked why the gang rape trial had ceased to draw attention he replied, ‘All these social movements, whether it be that of Anna Hazare or justice for the gang rape victim are like volcanoes, they explode but no one comes to clean up the mess afterwards’.
Meanwhile on one of the innumerable Facebook pages dedicated to the victim, a user has posted, ‘What happened to justice for the Delhi gang rape victim? Don’t we care anymore?’ Clearly a question one should ask one’s conscience!
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