Rohtak incident was another Nirbhaya in the making

The Nirbhaya gangrape case in 2012 seems to be a wake-up call for the country. But as we approach the second anniversary of this gruesome incident, another case shows nothing seems to have changed on the ground. Two girls, harassed by three men, were thrown off the bus in Rohtak, as fellow passengers watched. Déjà vu? It seems so.

The "Nirbhaya" incident had many of us screaming at the police. Why did they not stop and check the chartered bus? If they had done so, the girl might have been saved – were the headlines in every paper.  But in this ‘Rohtak incident’ there is no such excuse. The girls were first verbally abused, which they bore in silence.  No one intervened, except in an irony of ironies – a pregnant woman.

The men started picking on the woman, and again in an irony of ironies, it was the girls who fought back to save her. The girls were thrown off the bus, with their mobiles snatched.  Again it took a pregnant woman to act. She got off at the next stop and reported the incident to the cops. She also thoughtfully recorded the entire incident on her mobile, which no else had thought to do.        

What does this tell us? The Nirbhaya incident had some people suggesting the girl should not have travelled late and should definitely not have boarded an empty bus. But the Rohtak incident shows that to be load of bunkum. Were people of any help here? No – and there are no excuses to hide behind this time. It was not late, the bus was full and the only thing co-passengers did was to cringe, smirk, or look away. The only time these ‘men’ came to life was to tell the girls not to file a police complaint. Such things, it seems, are part and parcel of being a girl.    

The girls will rightly be rewarded the state government for their bravery and the driver and conductor will be pulled up for non-action. But let’s not kid ourselves. This was another Nirbhaya in the making. The girls could have been hurt, even killed and we would have facebooked and tweeted our outrage, as we are all doing now. Some of us may even have organised or attended rallies and proudly flaunted the fact later. Why? Because women’s causes are fashionable, but only, it seems, after the woman is dead or seriously injured. Nirbhaya has taught us that.             

The bigger question we have to ask ourselves is why do we not care to act when a tragedy is in front of us? Suppose, for a moment, it was you on the bus. Would you, as the pregnant lady did, intervene? If so – kudos! Would you call the cops? Great! But most probably you would settle for option three – denial. Even if you are moved to do something, you would most probably be hushed up by your immediate circle. Police ke chakar mein phasna hain kya. And that is why Nibhaya’s ghosts are alive and well, and that is why we will continue to facebook or tweet our outrage.