AAP vs Delhi Police: Kejriwal defends the indefensible and stoops to 'politics'

No one expected AAP to have a smooth ride, but no one quite expected its ministers to turn out to be its worst enemies. Faced with growing internal spats, with MLA Vinod Kumar Binny accusing the government of moving away from the party’s goals and members like Captain Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai questioning the government’s actions, it now has added problems. Last week, Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, along with a few volunteers, demanded that the police raid a house in South Delhi saying that he had information that the foreign nationals — from ‘Nigeria or Uganda’ according to Mr Bharti — living there were pushing drugs and running a prostitution racket. According to media reports, two women were forced to undergo medical examination in the night. It seemed to have slipped Bharti’s mind that it is illegal for the police to raid a place without a search warrant and as per the Code of Criminal Procedure the police cannot take action against women after sunset. On the same day, women and child welfare minister Rakhi Birla accused the police of shielding suspects in a dowry harassment case.
The Delhi Police ‘refusing’ to co-operate with the state government, as pointed out by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a press conference on Thursday, points to a larger issue of who controls the police control and police reforms that needs to be addressed on a policy level, and not on the streets of Delhi in the night by people who are not authorized to do so. The irony in Kejriwal’s statement “We warn the Delhi Police to mend their ways….the police are only shying away from their duty” cannot be missed as it was the same AAP, under Kejriwal’s leadership, which attacked then CM Sheila Dikshit when, after the December 16 gang rape, she said that her government had no control over the Delhi Police which comes under the Union home ministry. Kejriwal holding dharnas till the cops who did not comply by the ministers’ orders are suspended will not improve the security situation in the capital.
 Many of the government’s actions seem to show that AAP is yet to move from an activism mode to understanding the intricacies of running a government. The people have reposed great faith and hope in AAP and are ready to give it a very long rope. This is all the more a reason for AAP to be extra cautious before resorting to insensitive statements and acts of vigilantism.

Media's love for 'branding' victims

The media — be it the print, broadcast or Internet — has a social responsibility to the general public it serves. While great care is often taken to ensure that this responsibility is maintained, there are times when they are flaunted with no apology.

The December 16 gang rape of a paramedic in Delhi greatly shook the nation and saw unprecedented protests in many parts of the country. The rape of a five-year-old in Delhi, a few days ago, along with other reports of rape and police insensitivity, has produced similar anger and protests. Posed with a dilemma of not being able to disclose the names of rape victims (as it is a punishable offence) and the challenge to highlight the above mentioned two cases — one does not understand why these two cases — media houses lining Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and other places decided to ‘name’ the victim. Thus the December 16 gang rape victim got the names: Abhaya, Nirbhaya, Amaanat, among others and the five-year-old was christened Gudiya and Masoom. While on the face of it it appears to be an innocent and ‘helpful’ move, this nom de guerre is prompted more by news desk compulsions — a name, even an assumed one, makes good copy.
Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code and the Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India prohibits the publishing of the name of a rape victim; publishing it is a punishable offence. This anonymity of rape victims poses a great challenge to the media. This was fine as long as the number of rape cases being reported were far from few. But of late, with a sharp spike in the number of rape cases being reported and with media presence much greater than what it used to be a few years ago, this faceless, nameless identity posed a problem for the media.
The most essential aspect before getting a product out in the market, and one which plays a crucial role in its success, is its branding. A product with a catchy name is more likely to be a hit than a product with a stale, unexceptional name. When it comes to the reportage of news relating to incidents of rape, some media houses tend to take this approach. Often this ‘branding’ of a rape victim is done with the excuse that it will help in furthering the cause of the victim, sensitising the public about the issue and serves a greater purpose of bringing tougher laws. This is as poor an excuse as it can get. Such ‘branding’ or commodification of a victim might help in giving attractive headlines, snazzy news packages and help in boosting sales/TRPs.
By using such disingenuous euphemisms the media cocks a snook at the law of the land and more importantly dehumanises a person who has already been subject of brutality. It is altogether another argument on whether the name of a victim should be made public. Minister of state for human resource development Shashi Tharoor, after the December 16 Delhi gang rape, rightly wrote on Twitter that “she was a human being w/a name, not just a symbol”. He was arguing for naming the victim (if the parents were for it) and honouring the victim as a real person.Hewlett-Packard president and CEO Margaret Cushing Whitman’s view that “When people use your brand name as a verb, that is remarkable” might be good for a product and business. But to apply the same logic to sensitive issues like rape/molestation is unfortunate. To say that such a pattern of reportage is cruelly insensitive is an understatement. The fourth estate, as much as it is touted to be a mirror of the society, should be sensible enough to know where to draw the line. The difference between responsible journalism and sensationalism is blurred in these cases.
How naïve of William Shakespeare to have written: ‘What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’
(An edited version of this appeared in the Hindustan Times on April 25)

No Country for Children

 Reports in the media of women getting raped and further being traumatised by an indifferent system is recurring with nauseating frequency. What is more disturbing is that there seems to be a rise in the number of minors being victims of sexual abuse. Last week a 45-year-old businessman was arrested for sexually abusing his 16-year-old daughter in Gurgaon. In mid-February three sisters — all minors — were allegedly raped and dumped in a well in Bhandara district, Maharashtra. Now comes the report of a 10-year-old girl being raped by an upper-caste man in Bulandsahr, Uttar Pradesh. What makes the Bulandsahr incident glaring is the reaction of the police to the victim and her mother. While in many cases the victims are pressurised by the police and local society to withdraw the complaint, here the police women in the Bulandsahr all-women police station ill-treated the victim’s mother and locked up the 10-year-old victim. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports and has sent a notice to the state government; but the fact that the court had to intervene shows that the system is cripplingly handicap to carry out even its basic duty of protecting citizens.

That this takes place only days after the president okayed an anti-rape law shows that stringent anti-rape laws will be rendered ineffective if our police force and hospital authorities — the initial points to which victims of abuse go to — are insensitive, and worse abusive, to the plight of rape victims. No amount of sermons about uplift of women safety and safety of children will help unless the authorities are sensitised to the delicate nature of such the situation and the importance of their role in giving the victim a sense of protection and comfort. Owing to public stigma, family pressure and the related trauma of being seem as ‘immoral’ seldom do victims of sexual abuse report to the police. And when they do muster the courage and complain it is the duty of the state to give them the support and protection that is required.
The February report by Human Rights Watch titled ‘Breaking the Silence: Child Sex Abuse in India’ highlights how the government’s response to children who are sexual abused fails to protect the victims. The Bulandsahr incident reiterates the HRW observation and poses the question: what is the level of sensitisation and preparedness of police personnel towards dealing with such an issue? Sexual abuse, especially of minors, is on the rise. Anti-rape laws with stringent punishment may be on the way but unless the attitude of the authorities concerned does not change ours is no country for women and children.
(An edited version of this appeared in the Hindustan Times)