By Kartik Bansal:
We all should be very happy that we are living in a democratic country where words speak louder than actions. Our wonderful politicians seem to have come up with some brilliant ideas and made us proud in such a way that the whole world is laughing at us.
Few days ago, Haryana ministers and the Khap panchayat gave out grotesque statements on the rise in the incidence of rapes and now the Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee said that the rape cases are on the rise in the country because men and women interact with each other more freely. If we accept what she said, then there should be no rape attempts on those girls who do not talk or mingle with boys. But the truth is, according to the report of the ‘Crime in India 2009’, released by the National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB), cases of incest rapes have increased by 30.7%, from 309 cases in 2008 to 404 cases in 2009. So now, Mamata Banerjee will probably ask the women to stop talking to their fathers, brothers and other male relatives.
If holding the hand of the opposite sex is a reason behind rapes, then every household should have registered one rape case on a daily basis. I think the Chief Minister should stop flattering her voters and look at the causes behind the problem. Simply blaming the media of suppressing facts and causing ‘news pollution’ is not going to hide the truth for a long time.
One more statement issued by her ran to the tunes of the fact that some electronic channels were targeting her party by dishing out ‘canards and exaggerated and negative news items’ to create a bad image of her and her people. She only seems to be concerned about her party, not about the people of this country. Isn’t she concerned about the reasons behind the same? Why negative stories make the cut and positive ones are lying somewhere, waiting to be unearthed?
‘There is no smoke without fire’ and Miss Banerjee has to understand this because our country does not need the kind of politicians who simply speak and do nothing. Mamata Banerjee has previously been caught in a controversy of her own making in Bengal, over the rape case in Park street. This case really shocked the country and irked her ego. She also announced a financial compensation for rape victims and this shows her insensitivity despite being a woman herself: compensating women’s feelings with money? Should we then clap for her?
According to the NCRB, there were 24206 rape cases reported in India in 2011 and today, a woman is raped every twenty minutes in India. And for Miss Banerjee’s kind information, Bengal ranks second in the rape charts in 2011 with 2363 rape cases. Her comments are surely very absurd and she has faced severe criticism from all sections of the society owing to her statements on rape and the transfer of the female police officer Damayanti Sen, who single-handedly cracked the Park street’s rape case.
The gist of whole debate is that rape does not happen because of the way women dress or interact with men but due to the mindset of men. If the rapist has no fear of the law he sure will try to manifest his power over women. It is our lawmakers that can redress the problem and implement strict laws in order to do away with this sinful activity and purge the society.