Smashing the fear-shame barricades

FOUR images have defined the status of women and female sexuality in India this month.

The first, the death of a young college student by suicide in Balasore, Odisha, protesting against her own professor demanding sexual favours of her. The second, a viral video of two women in saffron bustiers and saffron skirts entertaining male kanwariyas on a truck, a perfect example of life meeting Bollywood. The third, the deletion of a 33-second kiss between Superman and his girlfriend Lois Lane, because the Censor Board decided the movie was “overly sensual” for an Indian audience.

And the fourth, the naming of Haryana BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Barala’s son Vikas as Assistant Advocate General, despite the fact that he remains accused of stalking and attempting to abduct a young girl, Varnika Kundu, back in 2017, right here in Chandigarh. The man was in jail for five months at the time. It’s a criminal case. It’s been eight years, but the trial is still going on. Perhaps the wheels of justice grind slowly in Haryana.

Perhaps there’s something about Haryana. And Odisha and West Bengal and Delhi and the rest of the country where sexual crimes against women are only going up every year. For those of us old enough to remember, the gangrape in December 2012 of the girl we call ‘Nirbhaya’ — her name was Jyoti Singh, a woman both of light and courage – was a turning point in the fight that India’s daughters have waged for decades towards equality.

Prime Minister Modi understood back then that the Delhi gangrape was a key reason why the Congress lost the country in 2014 and the Delhi Assembly elections the following year. ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, Modi said, laying claim to a slogan that resonated across the nation. He put women first, as first recipients of government schemes, converted them into a vote-bank and even a quota — 33 per cent of women are expected to be elected to Parliament sometime in the future, although it’s not fully clear when. Still, it’s a vow and no one can go back on it.

In Modi’s third term as PM, the fight continues every day. Back in 2012, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 25,000 rape cases a year. Cases peaked in 2016, with 39,000. In 2022, the year for which data is last available, 31,000 rapes were reported.

In 2018, the year after Varnika Kundu reported Vikas Barala at a Chandigarh police station, a rape was reported every 15 minutes.

Inbuilt in the data is the impunity that politicians exercise. Vikas Barala is only the latest in the rollcall of those accused of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault. The queue so far is packed with people like former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni, now-suspended former Janata Dal-S MP Prajwal Revanna, former BJP MLA Kuldip Sengar and many more.

Perhaps one reason why politicians feel they can get away is because the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (POSH) Act does not apply to registered political parties — a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court only on Friday, pleading that POSH should apply.

And yet it’s a glass half-full in the social landscape since the 2012 Delhi gangrape — the too-sad death by suicide of the Balasore student earlier this month, after she pleaded with her principal to rescue her from her alleged molester — he didn’t — has been followed by Varnika Kundu’s brave statement on Vikas Barala’s appointment.

“Appointing someone to a public position of power is not just a political decision — it’s a reflection of values and standards,” she said. “I am out to get justice,” Varnika told the Hindustan Times, “Someone had to stand up for those silent women without power.”

To recap Varnika’s story, she was returning home one night in August 2017 and found that a car with two men in it, Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish, were following her. They forced her on to a side road and attempted to block her path. They tried to enter her vehicle. She filed a case against them in the nearest police thana.

It will be eight years in early August. As many as 102 hearings have taken place. The case seems nowhere near reaching a conclusion, but the impunity with which the government has just named the accused to a coveted appointment, makes one wonder if justice is truly blind.

Certainly, the fight is about control — and consent. How far can you assert your own power over another person without her consent? Certainly, if the two adult women in itsy-bitsy saffron clothing on the kanwariya truck earlier this week were dancing away for the entertainment of the men in the truck, because they wanted to be doing that, there, then no one else has the right to tell them not to or what kind of clothing they should wear. If you don’t feel it’s sanskari enough for you, that’s your problem.

That’s why when women like Varnika and Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat stand up to fight the good fight, what they are really doing is smashing the fear-shame barricades. They know it will be a long haul. But their self-belief, that log kya kahenge is yesterday’s mantra — in any case, kuchh toh log kahenge — is staggering in its simplicity.

As for the Censor Board snipping Superman’s kissing scene, perhaps those on the Board can be sent for an all-expenses paid trip to either the Khajuraho or Konark temples — both located in BJP-ruled states — to see how our ancient Hindu kings and queens dealt with the delicate dance of life.

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