In a country, no stranger not only to crimes but also the rising rate of crimes, what can be worse than witnessing the relentless rise in rapes- perhaps one of the most brutal forms of punishment that a victim could ever be subjected to. The problem with crimes in India isn’t a new one and the fact that rapes are rising constantly, especially where the past half a decade of time is concerned, also goes to show the complete administrative failure in correcting a major wrong.
Nothing can be more derogatory than assaulting the esteem and respect of a woman. Isn’t it? And what can be more heartbreaking than reading about something as grievous as gang rape?
Well over half a decade of time has flown by since the most horrific case of gang rape in modern India’s recent history was witnessed. In that regard, it won’t be ever wrong to state that the events of 2012 were spine-chilling and frightening. The Nirbhaya gang rape case that took place on a cold wintery Delhi night did not only serve a blight on the fortune of the national capital but also shook the image of the country around the world.
It’s not just down to the fact that rapes are a blight on the image of the country but every time the modesty of a woman is outraged anywhere in the world, one feels that there is damage done to women everywhere in the world.
To this day, our country reels under the most shocking and painful episodes ever witnessed in modern history; the fateful night of December 16, 2012, when four men gang-raped the girl who came to be known as Nirbhaya.
Perhaps it may not be wrong to state that the country will perhaps never truly move on from that episode for the sheer horror and helplessness it invoked.
Widely reviled as it should have been, it left us to wonder about the helplessness and plight of Nirbhaya’s mother, who was recently present at the Delhi court where the ruling that the death warrant for the hanging of the four men who gang-raped her daughter back in December 2012, had to be postponed.
One wonders, at that point in time, what might have been the thoughts of Nirbhaya’s mother?
Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi, has long since been covered in the media, her struggles marked by coping with the loss of a young daughter, who was a young medical student, are well known to the country.
But at the back of the decision that postponed the execution of the death sentence of the four convicts left Nirbhaya’s mother teary-eyed and helpless, without a doubt.
She was quoted as saying, “Wherever we go, we are told about the rights of the convicts. What about our rights?”
NDTV shared, she demanded of the judge at the Patiala House Court, crying and breaking down under the heavy burden of a seven-year-long search for justice for her daughter.”
One wonders, what may have also been the thoughts of the judge who was overseeing what can only be called such a sensitive matter? It’s told that the judge, moved by the tears of Nirbhaya’s mother, shared that he had ‘full sympathy’ to the plight of the weeping mother but had no choice but to follow the course of the law.
It is now known that fresh notices need to be issued for the conviction of the four convicts.
The media quoted his thoughts, “I have full sympathy with you. I know someone has died but there are their rights too. We are here to listen to you but are also bound by the law.”
But what can clearly be seen is that yet another year has passed and still, the guilty haven’t been given the due punishment their heinous crime warrants.