On September 14, 2020, a 19-year-old woman was raped in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state. Her tongue was cut off and she sustained more injuries. Later, after the death of the woman, her body was also burnt by the police without informing the family. There were four upper-caste ‘Rajput’ men who were said to be involved in the alleged rape and murder.
When the family of the woman reached the police station to write the report, for the first 5 days the police did not take any action against this serious misdeed. After the increasing resistance and outrage of the public, an FIR was registered and the accused were arrested. At the same time, the National Savarna Parishad has been saying that the incident is baseless.
This is an attack of Brahminical forces directly on the Dalit community. The Dalit community has been targeted since historical times. In the era of the current Brahminical Hindutva fascism, when the state has full support in realizing the imagination of an ideal Brahminical society, then people of such anti-patriarchal idea and force have been found.
This is the necessary condition for the creation of the ‘ideal Brahmanical society’ in which the body of a woman is considered ideal for mere physical enjoyment and household chores. In the starting of the year 2020, a mass molestation case was reported in Gargi College Delhi. Earlier too there were cases of harassment of women by the police force during the Anti-CAA protests.
Today, the talk of hanging rapists is under discussion again, and HangThe Rapist has been trending on social media. Debates are on like a legal trial, and justice is in the dock. But, something like this happened during the Nirbhaya case too, happened during the Hyderabad case, and so many more whose names haven’t been written. But, has anything changed with this?
Between 2005 and 2020, there has been a significant increase in the number of cases of rape, domestic violence, and violence against women. The democracy ‘barometer’ shows that India isn’t safe for women. India’s judicial system follows a class and high-caste mentality, where justice is a distant thing for the common man.
Capital punishment will not be able to smash the patriarchy which is deep-rooted in our society. A structural problem can not be solved in isolation.
Currently, the judicial procedure of the state structure sees every individual case in isolation. We might consider cases related to ourselves as independent, but they are closely interrelated and can not bypass the state’s nature, which is Brahmical, Hindutva, and fascist.
Women’s body is another space for imperialist capitalism to reproduce through objectification. So, when the demand for capital punishment raises from this system, we’re actually reproducing the current oppressive system. The Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch opposes this anti-women, anti-Dalit act, and appeals to all progressive students, the youth, and intellectuals to intensify the struggle for the real causes of the problem, and against the accused.