CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
The brutal gang rape of the young girl in
the moving bus in Delhi appears to have
really stirred the conscience of the people of India and our youth in
particular, witnessing the protest that
has been staged in the capital of India and other places. The demand
is mostly for awarding capital punishment to the
rapists. The Visual and other media have
aired the views of the VIPs on this
matter, which made me think why not I take a survey on this among the Aam Admi in my circle of friends and
acquaintances, which of course is limited
to very narrow circle ,me being a
commoner and an asocial person !
I started with a septuagenarian aunt of
mine who is quite vociferous on such
matters. Why any doubt ,was her reaction .It has to be Capital punishment and nothing else and that too very soon
before the society forgets the issue as public memory is short !
I found
my forty plus neighbour glued to the
Television watching the live telecasts
of the protests. On my asking her views on the matter , this was her reaction.” You know I have two sons and have always missed not having a
daughter. Today, after this incident I
console myself that at least I would not have to face such a situation in my
life. It has also made me more conscious of
inculcating respect for women in
my two sons so that they do not grow up into such brutes. If I were a law maker
I would have got the brute rapists
stoned to death in public.” Her husband
, a Doctor, reacted in a different way. He wanted that criminals castrated and suggested that the Government should amend the laws to make chemical
castration the only punishment for brutal rape.
The next persons I posed the question to , was a group of young boys and girls who were also watching the protests on
the Television. Their reactions was
almost violent. One of them said that he feels ashamed to have been born
a male in this country which gives scant respect to women and mind you ,
he was an only child of his parents. The
girls were unanimous in their opinion that the men who committed the
horrendous crime should be paraded naked in public and should be hanged
thereafter. All of them united in
their opinion that imprisonment for life cannot be a deterrent
and the men would come back to society
with all their suppressed sexual
frustration and commit worse crimes with a vengeance.
Finally when I came home I saw my mother, an octogenarian , seated
before the Television keenly watching
the live telecast of the protest in Delhi , foregoing her afternoon nap which
is a must in her daily routine. The moment I entered the house she pointed to the screen and exclaimed “ look
at this ! What is happening in our country and to our men ? How can they do
such things? Don’t they have mothers and sisters? This is too much .I wish I
had the power to punish them. I would get their genitals sliced and chilly powder
sprinkled by the very girl who
was their victim .” That was the end of my “survey” as I already got the feel of the seething anger among the
people of all age group .One
thing everybody seemed to be united
upon was, that the punishment should be
fast so that it would have its
impact on such other mentally sick men.
Is our Government listening ?
