How two tragedies of December 16 tie Pakistan and India together
December 16! The date which brings together two countries whose umbilical cord was severed as a parting gift from the British in the form of the partition.
On December 16, 2012, a young woman was brutally raped in the Indian capital city of New Delhi. Two years later on December 16, 2014, terrorists belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban opened fire on a military school in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Over hundred innocent young souls lost their lives as a result of this violence.
The young lady pursuing medicine too lost her life as a result of the infamous Delhi gang rape. But both the sacrifices on December 16 awakened the spirit of the two nations.
In India, thousands marched on the streets of New Delhi demanding security for women and gender equality. Their anger took a constructive form and was exhibited through the slogan "we want justice". Pakistanis were equally horrified when their nation met with a tragedy which was by no means less horrific. The entire world felt for them and everyone pleaded #PrayforPeshawar.
Sadly, the anger has evaporated. Sexual assaults are continuously reported from across India. Terrorism thrives like before in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the citizenry in both the countries has moved on with their lives.
They are far beyond protest marches, candle lighting and ceremonial changing of display pictures. They are living it up.
Has anyone bothered to ask: what has changed?
Laws have been altered. Pakistan lifted the moratorium on death penalty in terrorism-related cases post-Peshawar school attack. On the other hand in India, the December 16 incident led to amendments in the Criminal Law Act.
But are laws enough? That's the question we need to ask ourselves.
We still need changes in Indian laws to make marital rape a crime. Policy needs to be formulated to prevent sexual assaults from occurring in insurgency-hit areas at the hands of army personnel operating under the guise of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) .
Yet, at the same time, there are many things which cannot be prevented simply by framing laws. Women continue to be discriminated against widely. They are stared at while travelling on public transport and teased, stalked at public places. Professors have been accused of molesting their own students as happened recently in St Stephen's College in Delhi University.
Rape continues to be inflicted in riot-hit zones. The "Nirbhayas of Muzaffarnagar" bear testimony to that. We've spoken for long about gender sensitisation and a change in the collective mindset of the society. But no one really knows as to when it will occur.
Disappointment doesn't disappear when one crosses over to Pakistan. There have been terror strikes in almost all major cities.
"Beware of the ides of March", wrote Shakespeare. The day proved sinister in reality for Lahore when two of its churches were bombed on March 15, 2015. Two months later on May 13, Karachi witnessed a shooting incident in which the primary targets were members of the Ismaili Shia community.
Even more recently on October 19, 2015, we witnessed the bombing of buses in Quetta. Pakistan, indeed, is a victim of terrorism. But Pakistan can't safeguard itself from terrorism if men like Hafiz Saeed continue to freely roam around on its roads.
Terrorism is terrorism be it in Mumbai or Peshawar. If what happened in Peshawar was a massacre then Mumbai was no less dreadful. Pakistan needs to show no mercy to terrorists.
When will that happen? When will Pakistan clamp down on the likes of Hafiz Saeed? The world is waiting.
As Pakistan fails to rein in on terrorists, India is becoming increasingly ineffective in preventing violence against women. One person alone cannot take the blame. It's a shared responsibility which involves the people.
But it begins with the political leadership. Why can't Indian leaders behave themselves properly?
Why should a certain political leader who goes by the name of Mulayam Singh Yadav (who also happens to be the supremo of Samajwadi Party) justify rapes by saying that "boys commit mistakes?" Why is it that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses the phrase "despite being a woman" while mentioning that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is harsh on terrorism.
Such statements only reflect the deep rooted misogyny of the country's political leaders.
In a recent interview to BBC Urdu, Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf said, "Considering the atrocities and the treatment meted out to the Muslim majority in IHK (Indian held Kashmir), several groups such as Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Muhammad emerged. They were ready to lay down their lives for their Kashmiri brethren, we call them freedom fighters, not Taliban or terrorist."
That sounds like a perfect justification of terrorism. Pakistani leaders need to realise that violence has no place in society. Terrorism does not occur solely in Quetta and Karachi. It occurs in New Delhi and Mumbai too. More importantly, terrorism happens frequently in Kashmir.
Let's stop giving it a different name. Doesn't Musharraf remember the mantra of "no differentiation" between "good and bad terrorists?"
The people of Pakistan and India need to constantly keep their leaders in check. We can't afford to forget the sacrifice of young school kids in Peshawar.
We can't ever forgive the killers of Nirbhaya. It would be an insult to the memory of those hundreds of kids and Nirbhaya if the people of these countries chose to simply move on with their lives.
Political leaders have to be pressurised into taking actions against terrorism and crimes against women. As a society we can never be entirely free from these problems but we can certainly minimise them.
The perfect tribute to Nirbhaya and Peshwar school kids would be when Pakistan and India defeat terrorism and violence against women. Let us come together and do what is right. Let us honour the ones who sacrificed their lives on December 16.