Is it the banning of a documentary, the place of women in our country, the Indian masculine mindset or the reason why rapes occur, that is troubling us? Clashing views, outbursts, if I may say, in public and private communication platforms hardly address any of these problems. Activists, journalists and film makers have pet views which they cannot change for their own reasons. Dispassionate human beings, however, have the freedom to think and reason on our own.
I saw British filmmaker Leslee Udwin's documentary, India's Daughter, made for BBC. There has been no UK's Daughter or the Daughter of the US or China's Daughter by this film maker as yet. Why? Because she knew those governments were sure not to give her permission to meet and chat with rapists? Mukesh Singh, the alleged rapist, sits there as if he is a hero in a feature film and offers homilies. He looks very well fed. Good prison life.
For two years, says the Guardian, Udwin stayed on in India meeting and interviewing rapists, all this to find out why rapes happen and she quite concluded that lack of respect for the women was the reason. She went to town with the gory details, to put it mildly. She could have interviewed a psychologist and found out the answer sooner. The name of the girl is mentioned over and over again and her photo also given. Inaccuracies are also there.She was a doctor, she says, while in fact Nirbhaya (why we so carefully mask her identity when the whole world knows it, I wonder) was a trainee physiotherapist.
Do rapes happen only in India? She gives no statistics. Quite a badly made film too. Here's one instance. She goes to see Life of Pi with a friend, says the documentary and you are shown a roaring tiger from that film for some time!! The juvenile is never shown with his real face. He is the cruellest but he has not been interviewed. Why? Udwin takes Mukesh Singh's words as gospel truth? How can a rapist's words be dubbed as the opinion of the Indian male? The defence lawyer is a joke. "We have the best culture. In our
culture, there is no place for a woman," says M L Sharma, holding forth. It is jokers like these who devalue India. Selective interviews have given Madame Udwin what she wants.
The poor parents of the girl have given permission, for the documentary to be made, say the credits.
A man who she says was her tutor, goes on saying what a nice girl she was etc, naming her. If Madame Udwin wanted so badly to stick to real people and real names, why didn't she meet the friend with whom Nirbhaya had gone out and get his gory version too?
The reason why rapes occur are many. A rapist's is a sick mind, for heaven's sake and one cannot say it happens because of lack of respect for women.
Drugs, alcohol, psychological problems or an overzealous libido may be the causes. Above all
poverty and the tough life people lead, make them devoid of compassion
or even plain kindness. As long as these conditions remain so, rapes are bound to occur not only in India but all over the world, sadly enough. Barbaric punishmenrs as in the Middle East may help, but then, we are a democratic country, aren't we? So we have to put up with the present state of things. Once poverty vanishes and healthy human beings inhabit the earth, we can all walk alone on the road at dead of night, fearlessly. Till then, I suggest we take care of ourseleves, because the police cannot be expected to follow each one of us whenever we go out alone every time at night. There has to be bhaya, not nirbhaya till then.
Prema Manmadhan
