Delhi's rape news reminded me of a conversation that I had with a friend of mine, Arushi, the co-writer for this article, which basically asked for instilling fear for punishment so that no such act takes place in the first place and if it does, the punishment would be fierce enough to make others think twice before they do anything.
It is sad that we have to think of such measures, but her point was that the best protection is not that you have someone protecting you. Rather, that even if no one is guarding you, the consequences of hurting you would be far too great than the pleasure of hurting you. That whatever is done to you now, much worse would be done to the culprit.
That was her but I fail to define "fierce". No punishment can possibly be good enough for rape.
Capital punishment. Too easy. Torture. Again, too broad a category. Plus do we really want legally sanctioned torturers? How do you un-torture someone who was wrongly accused. How much is too much? And the most important question, where do you find people willing to go this far to make this country safe for the rest of us?
However, there can be plenty of ways to make those douche bags taste humiliation, pain, agony, helplessness and eventual death. But again, does anyone really want to get their hands that dirty? Maybe.
The police can inspire absolute obedience, if they are not hindered. But then again, who will police them? Its all a snarled tangle. But while I can simply call it that and leave it, our government cannot. Because it has a duty to treat all its citizens equally, and that includes making it okay for women to be able to live and breathe freely and safely because essentially, slowly and slowly, that is what is being taken away.
Here's what this post is about though. Capital punishment while most people find agreeable for these rapists, there are people trying to hold moral grounds and talk of reformative measures.
To all those people honestly, you couldn't have possibly put yourself in that girl's place or any rape victims' place!
Also, as principled as those views sound, how on Earth can you think that the victim's family would be ready to take any of those rapists money earned by servitude to Cancer and AIDS patients. Is that not putting a price on her suffering. So do a few lakhs or even a few crores solve everything? Is cash all there is to life.
Why would the patients possibly want to be served by those reprobates when they get to know who they are? Especially consider this. How will you protect the staff and the patients from these rapists? A patient is in a hospital for a reason. A weak person may not even be able to call out for help. Do these people realize that cancer and AIDS patient are terminal a lot of the times? What crime did those people commit to suffer this indignity?
And just to point it out, this so-called reform drive of yours, isn't it for those who have already committed the crime? So it only makes others think that its okay to rape because all they will have to do is community service. Which is essentially the softest punishment out there.
How do you intend to spot potential rapists with these reforms? How do you propose to instill the same morals in a rapist-to be? There is no answer, because the laws even as they are now are better than that pathetic option. And God knows they're not working. Please stop worrying about the criminals and worry about the victims for once? Do try and remember who actually got hurt, rather than who gives you the moral high ground.
Of course, it trickles down to morals but morals once lost and manifested in such debauch acts call for something extreme. That 'something' will hopefully be defined and delivered in the most fitting way to those culprits by the government.
The society at large is rightly outrageous and the so-called moralists, it's your time now!
