He said, “We have been casually using expletives and cuss words which are abusive and against our women. Can we not pledge to get rid of every such behaviour, culture that humiliates and demeans women in our daily life?”
However, the same day, the Gujarat government released 11 men convicted of rape of then 21-year-old and five months pregnant Bilkis Bano and murder charges of her family members, including a three-year-old by smashing the toddlers head. It has now been revealed that the release was granted a green signal by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) within days of the Gujarat government seeking its opinion.
If not for some prominent women from across the country, who approached the Supreme Court, the information that the MHA had granted permission for their release in less than a fortnight would not even have made it to the public domain.
Releasing of convicts for exemplary behaviour and on special occasions has been a high point of our judicial process to help the convicts who have transformed to be able to integrate into the society. However, even in the remission policy exceptions are the norm.
In June earlier this year too, the MHA issued guidelines on remission as part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and laid out the exceptions which included ‘those serving a death sentence or the same commuted to life; those serving a lesser sentence in an offence that also carries death sentence; those guilty of rape or child sex abuse; those sentenced for acts of terrorism, offences against the state, etc’.
Despite the specific guidelines, the 11 men were released and since then several questions have been raised on the procedures followed.
It should have sent shockwaves down every sane person’s spine to see visuals of these men convicted of heinous crimes being felicitated with garlands and laddoos. One of the committee members that granted the premature release of the convicts went as far to question the conviction by the Supreme Court.
By doing so, those responsible for the release not just handed a tight slap to the biggest leader in the history of the present ruling dispensation but also lowered the dignity of the Apex Court.
The society that roared and compelled the Parliament to enact The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 is silent today. No wonder that we have been witnessing incidents of the likes of Hathras and Unnao almost regularly. The latest one to be reported in the media is the case of a 26-year-old software engineer who was allegedly gang-raped by around 10 men in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.
After the release of the 11 convicts, Bilkis Bano in a statement said, “My sorrow and my wavering faith is not for myself alone but for every woman who is struggling for justice in the courts. No one enquired about my safety and well-being before taking such a big and unjust decision. The trauma of the past 20 years washed over me again… I am still numb.”
As the adage goes, ‘Words are meaningless without intent and follow through’, the Prime Minister should follow through the clarion call he made from the ramparts of the Red Fort, else history shall be harsh on him for yet another ‘jumla’.
