Typical Indian Mind Set and Rape and Controversy around BBC Documentary 'India's Daughter'

I saw couple of newspapers today full of controversy that even rocked both the houses of Indian Parliament, besides long debate in newspapers, TV and social media. One of the accused of Nirbhaya Rape Case Mukesh Singh languishing his jail term at Tihar, was interviewed by film maker Lesille Udwin for her documentary 'India's Daughter' for BBC on this case. Our parliamentarians are outraged on the permission to Lesille to record Mukesh Singh's version about the Nirbhaya rape. There are many independent voices also, opposing release of this documentary rather getting it banned. It was 16 December 2012, Nirbhaya was returning home with her boy friend after a late night cinema show, taken lift in a private bus, she was brutally murdered after rape by the staff and their friends in the running bus. Her boyfriend was also attacked and manhandled by the culprits. This gruesome rape shaken the collective conscience of the nation, followed by the nation wide candle marches and protests. Probably the public outrage has compelled the judiciary also to speed up the judgement and the legal process, otherwise the track record of disposal of the rape cases in the hand of police and judiciary is very poor, leaving little hope for the victims and their families. And the fact remains that after so many candle marches and street activism, tightening up the police and judicial pro activism, still the media is full of Nirbhyaa type rape cases. So in case the British Documentary maker Lesille met with Nirbhaya rape case accused Mukesh Singh and tried to probe his mind, so what is wrong with it? In fact, it has tried to probe the mindset of a person who can go to an extend of repealing modesty of a lady rape and murder her, it is also pertinent to know that he does not has any remorse for it, he has admitted that if Nirbhaya would have allowed the rape than probably she would not be brutally attacked resulted in murder. I fail to understand that most of the parliamentarians, MEA, MHA and so many others in government feel that their is a conspiracy to defame India behind this documentary. Nirbhaya case was highlighted in media in the most high pitch manner. Every day, in one part or the other in our country more gruesome rapes take place and it never get Nirbhaya case kind attention. If somebody try to probe into mind of such criminal and than it is not a crime, probably it will help the police, administration, government and the social scientists to frame suitable strategies to prevent such gruesome crime. The rapes have a lot to do with our outlook towards women. Our feudal mentality treats a woman not more than an object of sex, it never allow to see her as a complete human being. This is despite the fact that in our holy scriptures a woman pay lot of respect to woman, she is called Adyashakti - the primal power, it is also mentioned in our holy scriptures that यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता i.e. where ever woman is worshiped the gods reside. But over the past few hundred years the feudal mindset has converted her as object of lust and sex for enjoyment. It is a common site in our country that when a women passes on road all the male eyes x-ray her with lust and as an object to fiddle with . Even if a person make undesired advancement towards a lady the society blames her rather than reprimand such person. This is a reality, the society should accept this and try to improve the situation, if you hide this hard reality under the cover, it can not make the situation any better. Let me tell you very honestly, when some of the MPs were taking umbrage at Ms Udwin, the producer of BBC documentary two days back in Parliament, I could sense smell of hypocricy, all such breast beating disguises two basic realities - first, the writ of the GOI does not turn across the internet as before the discussion in parliament a normal netizen like me got n number of video clips of the documentary and second the most importantly if the parliamentarians are really serious about preventing rapes, it can not be achieved by pushing unsettling testimonies into the shadows. The remedy to such horrifying crime needs looking them in the face and deeply probing the sick mentality that underline them. A time has come when our society has to answer certain tough questions in case we want to contain such crimes. Does a woman invite rape by dressing up differently from her Mom or Grandmom, or by venturing out of her home at night? Should rape be redressed by marriage to the rapist ? It is deeply disturbing that different people in India answer these questions in different ways. Also, there is an urgent need for women empowerment through education, make them economically self reliant. So instead of wasting our time and energy in demanding ban on a documentary, which is an effort to show mirror to society, we should clean up the system.

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