By Kamal Katyan
By Kamal Katyan
Morocco World News
New Delhi, December 30, 2012
Rape is almost a daily occurrence in India and many of these crimes go unreported by victims who have little faith in an often painfully slow justice system and are deterred by the response they can receive from mostly male police officers.
But the particularly savage nature of the attack in Delhi has brought a simmering anger to a boiling point and prompted the government to promise better security for women and harsher sentences for sex crimes.
The victim, a physiotherapist intern, and her male friend, on the fateful night of December 16, after watching a movie, boarded a chartered bus, after being told by the accused that they would drop them near their residence. They were then both assaulted with an iron bar by the six accused persons when the two resisted their advances. The girl was then gang raped by all the accused. Afterwards they both were dumped on the road side.
The girl was raped so brutally that the accused even brought out her intestine with the iron rod after rape.
This news galvanized the people of India against violence and sex crimes against women and there began an out pour of anger and protests, demanding the penalty of death to the culprits.
The protesters are from all corners of Indian society be it old men, or young, women, educated or uneducated. But a large part of the protesters were young students who began protesting spontaneously without the call of any political leader or party.
The outrage after the rape and attack represented a sea change that women were no longer prepared to suffer in silence. “We are aware that this is not the first case, nor will it be the last case of gang rape in India, but it is clear that we will not tolerate sex crime anymore,” said a Delhi based lawyer
The protesters even tried to demonstrate in the President House but were stopped by the police and military forces by shelling tear gas, firing a water cannon and finally resorting to lath charges (the use of batons). These protests resulted in many injuries among the demonstrators and one death of a constable of the Delhi police.
The police have been heavily criticized for their hardliner tactics in trying to quash the protests, including the frequent use of teargas and water cannons. And the Government was forced to appoint a Commission of Inquiry.
The anger of the public forced the government to send the victim to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital where she was pronounced dead before dawn yesterday.
As soon as the news of the death of the victim reached India the government deployed heavy police and para military forces in New Delhi and blocked several roads in and around India Gate (the site of an earlier protest). It also closed at least 10 stations of Delhi Metro rail. However, these measures could not stop the crowds from pouring into Jantar Mantar an 18th century observatory in the heart of the Indian capital along with other cities of India.
As news of her death, after 13 days of struggle for life, emerged, the young and the old, men and women, began to silently gather at the site. Their numbers reaching thousands by afternoon and rapidly swelling thereafter.
By night there was a sea of humanity holding candles- and placing them neatly in winding rows in memory of the victim. Many held placards and hand written posters and shouted slogans. A few gave fiery speeches.
The crowds were largely peaceful but tempers briefly ran high when Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit made a sudden appearance, triggering loud boos, which prompted her to make a hurried exit.
Delhi’s cold weather did not deter the protesters from showing their solidarity with the woman who since her rape on December 16 had become a symbol of everything that is rotten in the Indian system.
