By: Aasef
Chauhdry
According
to the Wikipedia rape is the fourth most common crime against Indian
women. According to the National Crime Record Bureau 2013 annual report, 24,923
rape cases were reported across India in 2012. Out of these, 24,470
were committed by someone known to the victim (98% of the cases). Imagine what
would be the state of affair now, when from every nook and corner of India,
voice about rape cases is heard every now and then. The National Crime Records
Bureau of India suggests a reported rape rate of 2 per 100,000 people, much
lower than reported rape incidence rate statistics for many nations tracked by
the United Nations. However, the fact is otherwise, as the majority of rape
cases in India, as elsewhere in the world, are never reported. According to 2012
statistics, New Delhi has the highest raw number of rape reports among
Indian cities, while Jabalpur has the highest per capita rate of rape
reports. Several rape cases in India received widespread media attention
and triggered protests since 2012. This led the Government of India to
reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault.
The alarming issue is the penetration of sexually perverted
elements in the armed forces’ files and ranks specifically and civil society
generally. It has created a lot of panic among the peaceful citizens who are
feeling totally insecure. The raping the women publicly, at parks, while
travelling in buses, in army units has become a common practice since last one
decade. Even the peaceful members of Indian society and especially youth have
started raising their voice against this inhumanity. The JNU students union
president Kanhaiya Kumar, few weeks back, while talking about the
BJP’s youth wing filing a police complaint over his alleged defiance of
bail conditions by making “anti-national” statements, said, “No matter how much
you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will
raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers,
we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by
security personnel”.
The
Indian authorities encouraged their troops in Kashmir and hardly took any
action against the filthy monsters who were involved in the raping of
innocent and helpless Kashmiri women. The one well-publicized case was of a
young bride, Mubina Ghani, who was detained and raped by BSF soldiers while she
was traveling from the wedding to her husband’s home in May 1990. Her aunt was
also raped. The authorities ordered the police to conduct an inquiry.
Although the inquiry concluded that the women had been raped but the security
forces were never prosecuted. Then there is the famous case of an air force
officer Anjali Gupta, who filed a case in February 2005, against three of her
superiors at a police station in Bangalore. The police refused to take any
action. Anjali Gupta later approached the Karnataka High Court, nevertheless,
surprisingly; the general court martial (GCM) proceedings against her were
initiated. She was mentally tortured, pressurized, placed under house arrest.
Later, Anjali Gupta was dismissed from service in 2005 after a five-member
General Court Martial (GCM) jury convicted her of misappropriating funds,
insubordination and failure to report for duty. On 11 September 2011, Anjali
Gupta was found hanging at a relative’s home in Bhopal as it was expected and
feared.
In November last year, a senior Group Captain of the Indian Air
Force (IAF) posted in the crucial Eastern Command that looks at China, was
removed from his current charge for allegedly harassing two women, one of them
being the wife of a fellow officer. Sources claimed that IAF Headquarters
received complaints from at least two women who alleged that the officer had
harassed them. A court of Inquiry has been ordered. This is not first time
allegations of harassment have been made against serving officers. The forces
have a zero tolerance policy in dealing with cases of harassment and
misbehavior. And, in the past officers have been sacked and in some cases even jailed
for such offences.
Again in October last year, a 26-year-old Captain of Signal Corps,
posted at the Alwar military station in Rajasthan, who was a prominent part of
the first-ever Indian Army women officers’ contingent that showcased ‘Naari
Shakti’ at Raj path in 2015 Republic Day parade also alleged sexual harassment
by her senior and filed a sexual harassment complaint against none other than
the Commanding Officer of her unit. A scanned copy of the letter written by her
father said that while the army sat on her complaint for nearly two months, the
accused was posted to a much larger commanding unit. Disappointed by the way
her complaint was handled by the authorities, the father of the officer wrote
an emotional appeal to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to look into the
matter. “If this is the way the Indian Army treats its daughters, I am not sure
if any parent will ever send their daughters to the Army,” he wrote.
The
most recent case is of one star general of the Indian army who was posted as
Indian Defence Attaché in Kabul. Brigadier SK Narain has reportedly been
expelled from Afghanistan over charges of raping an Afghan girl. Brigadier SK
Narain was posted as defence attaché in the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The Afghan
girl he raped had reportedly approached the Indian Embassy earlier to obtain a
scholarship. She was later raped on the premises. For any human it is a heinous
crime, however, the shameless Afghan government may take as an honour as they
are trying to please the Indians without any reason. That’s why no criminal proceedings
have been initiated against the accused Indian official and he was merely
expelled from the country immediately. A uniformed rape was another story on
the home front when a few weeks ago, three Indian Army soldiers raped an Indian
girl in a moving train.
It seriously looks as if the Indian military circles have serious
psychological disorders which need to be addressed immediately and at national
level. Unfortunately that seems to be impossible at least during fanatic Modi
regime.
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