Why being a woman in Manohar Lal Khattar's Haryana scares me
On a cold winter night in 2012, when the infamous Nirbhaya rape case shook the entire world, many felt appalled, disgusted and scared about the plight of women in the country. In no time, Delhi was termed the "rape capital of India".
Little did we know then that a neighbouring state will cross the barbarity of the crime in a few years. Unaware that their destiny will meet the same end soon, many more Nirbhayas were living across the capital's border in Haryana.
From 2012 till today, several developments, movements, and protests have taken place in the country, but nothing really mitigated the misery of being a woman. The last one week has been a testament to the fact.
While several monstrous rape cases were reported in Haryana in the past week, the ensuing outcries for justice didn't really match the tone of the past ones. Perhaps, people have lost faith in the government and its tall promises. Perhaps, they know that their cries will not be heard for the government is no longer just a mute spectator. It has turned a deaf ear to all those cries, all those pleas and all those requests for providing justice.
When a 15-year-old girl is brutally assaulted, her private parts are mutilated with foreign objects, and her lungs are ruptured, and when, not long ago, a similar ghastly incident has already put the entire country to shame - there is no hope that the country's situation will change.
Time and again, the nation's men have proved that they are strong enough to rape and kill any woman for momentary sexual gratification. They have full faith in the system that nobody is going to stop them - no police and no law.
And that's what disturbs me the most: the incompetence of the government in acting against the culprits, each time such an incident occurs. However, this time, the Haryana government has crossed all limits of incompetence. In merely a week, six women have been raped and some even killed in different parts of the state. This shows that the law and order situation in the state is an absolute mess. But chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has failed to take any swift action.
Beti Bachao or Beti Gawao
With a lot of pomp and show, on January 22, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an initiative to save the girl child. It was the incapable BJP government's flagship programme "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao". And what an irony it is that the programme was launched in the same state where several "betis" have lost their respect, identity, soul and even their lives.
In 2016, Haryana reported the highest number of gang rapes in the country. As per the NCRB data, 191 gang rapes took place in the state that year, with a rate of 1.5 per cent - a shameful progress against the nation's average of 0.3 per cent. While one gang rape occurred every two days in Haryana in 2016, more than three rapes reportedly occurred in a day.
But did the government do anything to improve the situation? No.
And the beginning of 2018 with so many barbaric rape cases in Haryana validates the fact that not just the Khattar government but the BJP government at the Centre too is absolutely incapable when it comes to taking stern actions.
With the patriarchal mindset that this government has, the focus has never been the country's women. All that matters to the ruling government is to look for photo-ops, play divisive politics, criticise the Opposition and praise their own government despite a poor governance track record.
The hypocrisy of this government could be proven with the fact that one of the prominent women leaders of the BJP, Smriti Irani, who is the information and broadcasting and textiles minister, proudly questioned former prime minister Manmohan Singh on women's safety in 2012. Earlier the same year in September, she even went ahead to allege that: "There has been a sharp rise in crime against women during the past seven years in Haryana."
Today, when the entire nation is condemning the series of rapes that have taken place in the same state, where women's safety was a matter of great concern for Irani a few years back, she is not seen questioning the incumbent prime minister. Guess sycophancy is more important than moral responsibility.
Then there is another incompetent stalwart in this government, Haryana health minister, Anil Vij. Of late, this gentleman has been busy tweeting on the ban on Padmaavat, but his Twitter handle does not have a single tweet condemning the spate of barbaric rape cases in the state. This shows the priorities of the government he is a part of.
'पद्मावत' से राजपूत समाज सहमत नहीं, इसलिए बैन लगाया : अनिल विज - NDTVIndia https://t.co/KdaYvTk3DQ
— ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) January 18, 2018
This government is more focused on encouraging bans and promoting violence, but nobody really cares if the women of the country beg, plead, or bleed.
Such has been the insensitivity of this government that even when RC Mishra, the additional director general of police (ADGP) of the Ambala Range said that rape is a part of society, the PM didn't bother to take action against him.
Dear prime minister, one quick question for you - do you really care about the women of the country? Because merely launching a programme named "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" will not save women in the nation - sacking incompetent ministers like CM Khattar and those who trivialise crimes against women like the ADGP might do. Another thing that might help is strict laws that can deter men from looking at any woman inappropriately.
Khattar must go - It's about time!
The BJP has always been quick to demand resignations from CMs of the Opposition government whenever they have failed to administer their respective states effectively. In 2008, after the horrifying Mumbai terror attacks, the then CM of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh was forced to resign from his office due to his inept administration, and he did.
So, why doesn't the same BJP demand resignation from its own CMs when the likes of Khattar? The complete two-facedness of the BJP and its party members has revealed how this government has one set of rules for the Opposition and another for itself - ignorant and insensitive towards the citizens' problems.
With the ever-rising rape incidents and the wretched law and order situation of the state, Haryana has turned into a crime hub and it's time that Khattar resigned for he has lost all rights to continue in office, thanks to his incompetence and feebleness to take a stand against the wrongdoers whenever Haryana is in flames.
Khattar's alliance with incompetence seems like an old one. Ever since the man has taken over the command of Haryana, the situation of the state has gone from bad to worse. Be it the chaos caused in the ashrams of godmen like Rampal, Jats asking for quota by crippling normal life in the state, or the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Khattar along with his government has been a prime example of ineptitude and inaction.
Misplaced priorities
It seems like the Khattar government is in power for only two causes: banning movies and protecting cows. While ideally, it should work for causes like curbing violence and protecting the women of the state. But then, he is not the one to be blamed. When you hire an RSS pracharak to control a state as important as Haryana, and when the CM has no administrative experience whatsoever, these are the repercussions for the people of the state to bear. Gang rapes, murders, violence, and bans - the situation of Haryana has never been pitiful.
I am sharing these thoughts not as a political analyst, but as a resident of Haryana, and more importantly, as a woman. Living here is quite similar to living in a state where there is no government. When the residents of a state are insecure, when there is no surety that a girl leaving her house will come back safe, it is nothing but a portrayal of that so-called government's sheer impotence.
On the one hand, this government credits itself with making India a proud, developing nation, promoting it abroad; and on the other, the same government remains silent when India's name is put to shame and when the country gets worldwide condemnation due to the unending issue of sexual violence.
Will Modi and his government ever stand up for the nation?
The string of brutal rapes in Haryana is nothing less than a litmus test for the government that boasts of focusing on "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas". There is no "Saath" and no "Vikas" unless and until the country's women are secure.
Will the BJP government provide the much-needed security to Indian's women and prove to the world that it is capable of tackling the nation's problems by sacking those who prove incompetent in handling offices and positions of responsibility?
The government must bring about the changes it talks about, or soon the country will face unprecedented mayhem with no entity safe and with no entity alive.