Rapes : Fear of the Law the only answer

At long last a better sense has prevailed upon the Central government and it has decided to impose death penalty on child rapists. Fine.
But why only for rapists of children below 12? Why leave out all those women, irrespective of the age factor, who become the victims of such heinous crimes? As a nation, we have to ensure foolproof safety and honour of women as well as children. For years, I have been pleading for death penalty and setting up of a chain of fast-track courts, both in urban and rural India, for such gruesome criminal acts.
Forget about those who under the cover of "human rights" or political considerations stand for the rapists. For us, women's rights and honour are more sacred than anything else. It is a pity that incidents of rape are often given political colours instead of becoming a display of unified resolve to fix up criminals. The latest such case relates to Kathua (Jammu) in which an eight-yearold child who was raped and murdered.
In May 2017 two bus molestation incidents in Punjab – one at Moga and the other near Khanna – were given a political twist as the heinous acts took place in the then SAD-BJP – run state of Punjab. In the Moga incident a 13-year-old girl was molested and thrown out of a moving bus. Regrettably, such shockingly shameful incidents of rape and murder continue everywhere. So do replay acts of shadow-boxing among rival political actors.
True, Indians are, by and large, highly religious people. But amidst changing social habits, norms, male mindset, ethical standards nothing can work except Fear of the Law. Beyond the provisions of the latest ordinance by the Modi government, we urgently need radical reforms in legal provisions, judicial processes, police forces and delinking investigation from the law enforcement. We also ought to have an effective women police force.
It is true that in the wake of the Justice Verma committee recommendations after the Nirbhaya incident of December 12, 2012, certain legal provisions relating to sexual offences were strengthened by the UPA government. Some provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act have been changed. Even the definition of rape has been expanded to incorporate offences like acid attack, sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking. The Modi government also made changes in the Juvenile Justice Act under which juveniles above 16 are tried as adults in serious crimes like rape and murder.
The latest ordinance is no doubt a step forward in the country's relentless battles against children women rapes and murders. But I doubt whether it would be a deterrent enough for crimes against them.
What now comes as a shock is the statement of the BJP government's Union Minister Santosh Gangwar. He says, "in such a huge country, if one or two cases are reported, one should not make such a big deal out of it". I wonder whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gag order to BJP MPs and MLAs on "not to give masala" to the media by their "needless remarks" will work ! It is equally disturbing that the minister does not know the horror stories of the nation. As many as over 40 rapes take place in the country every hour. Under the BJP-run Central government in 2016 as many 3,38,594 crimes against women took place. Of these 38,947 (11 per cent) were rape cases. Jammu and Kashmir reported 256 rapes in 2016. In the BJP-run Uttar Pradesh, there were cases of 4,816 rapes. In Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra there were 4,882 and 4,189 such incidents respectively. And only one in four rapists is convicted.
We have also ever increasing number of MPs with criminal records. What is more, 30 per cent of all state legislators have a criminal background and of 1,581 sitting legislators with criminal records, 51 are involved in crimes against women alone. Of 48 MLAs of these, four have rape cases against them.
No doubt, public outcry over Unnao, Kathua and number of such cases of crimes against children and women has been rising. We have numerous politicians in our midst who still blame women for being dressed "provocatively" and who are inclined to condone male crimes by saying "boys will be boys" and "mistakes can occur" or "what a big deal" ! It is legitimate to expect that our politicians should show the way and try to change the outlandish male mindset. As in many other cases, here too the responsibility of reforming the male mind rests with the civil society and social reformers. Enough is enough.
We have to keep up the fight on for the safety, dignity and honour of women and children. In the final analysis, nothing can work if there is no fear of the law among potential criminals. Look at Singapore and Hong Kong. Even in the middle of night a woman can walk safely to her home without fear. This element of fear can be generated, if the laws are not only enforced ruthlessly but also are seen to be enforced by the police without fear or favour of the powers-that-be.
Another critical element which could have electrifying effect in the prevailing perverse atmosphere is a clear and categorical provision in the law for death sentence for all sorts of rapists. Equally pertinent is fast-tracking of cases concerning sexual offences against girls and women. Fast-track courts under High Court-level judges should be expected to give their verdicts within three months. The Supreme Court needs to promptly look into all such related matters. There can be no half way approach to justice. The problem is very serious. We, as a people and media persons, must force the authorities as well as the judiciary to act fast.

Fake News and Freedom of Media

How does the concept of Fake News, which got globally into currency after the running battle of President Donald Trump with the high-profile American media, have any relevance to the Indian situation? The answer to this query could be both 'Yes' and 'No'. In the first place, against the backdrop of the digital setting, the entire range and dimension of India's media too has changed dramatically. Secondly, real or fake news, in a way, is also part of the old game of media control even in democratic establishments, India included, to keep journalists under leash for "reports" which may not be palatable to the powers-that-be.
There is, of course, no universally accepted definition of "fake news". In the changing world of media, the key question has to be whether there is "a deliberate attempt at providing manipulated or fabricated information to mislead readers or viewers. Such matters are for media organizations to examine and take a view, and not the prerogative of governmental authorities.

At a protest against the Rajiv Gandhi government's Defamation Bill in 1988, (from left), editor and leader of the BJP, K R Malkani; editor and activist Kuldip Nayar; editor-author Khushwant Singh; commentator and editor of The Statesman, C R Irani; and founder of The Indian Express Group, Ramnath Goenka. I am not sure what prompted the Smriti Irani-run Information and Broadcasting Ministry's "fake news" order announcing new guidelines to govern the accreditation of journalists based on screening if they are indulging in false news. Mercifully, better sense prevailed in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to set aside the I & B Ministry's order after sharp reactions from media bodies, including the Editors' Guild of India, Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association and Federation of Press Clubs of India and Press Club of India. The Guild rightly condemned the move as "arbitrary" and an attempt by the government to "police the media".

Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, along with supporters, during a rally to protest the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill , 2017, in Jaipur The Guild clearly stated that the recent reconstitution of the Press Council of India (PCI) was done in a manner that gave rise to doubts over the independence of the institution and its ability to be a neutral umpire. Even the reconstitution of the Central Press Accreditation Committee had led to questions over the non-transparent process being followed by the I & B Ministry by rejecting the Guild's nominees.
Indeed, with elections on the horizon, I look at the move as a desperate attempt to muzzle the media and chill the voices of dissent. As the Editors' Guild of India points out, the manner in which the Press Council and the accreditation panel were

I am not sure what prompted the Smriti Irani-run Information and Broadcasting Ministry's "fake news" order announcing new guidelines to govern the accreditation of journalists based on screening if they are indulging in false news. Mercifully, better sense prevailed in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to set aside the I & B Ministry's order after sharp reactions from media bodies, including the Editors' Guild of India, Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association and Federation of Press Clubs of India and Press Club of India. The Guild rightly condemned the move as "arbitrary" and an attempt by the government to "police the media".

reconstituted recently does raise questions of fairness and transparency in the name of penalizing "inconvenient" journalists and media organizations.
I must say with a total sense of pride that the press in India has invariably acted as a watchdog of democracy.
It has reported cases of miscarriage of justice. It has exposed the wrongs perpetuated on the weaker sections of society by feudal lords and governmental authorities. It has exposed some of the mightiest persons in the area of corruption and socio-economic injustice. It also knows how and when to pounce upon the authorities to safeguard freedom and the people's right to information.
Looking back, the way the journalists of all shades and opinions united against Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's illconceived Defamation Bill aimed at curbing their freedom underlines its basic resilience. The media personnel raised their voice against the Bihar Press Bill supported by

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This speaks a lot of Indian Media Power.
Diversity and richness of the media are not ornaments of a democracy but essential elements for survival. What, however, is disquieting is the BJP has not learnt lessons from the past wrong doings by the Congress government. To give one example: the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan sought to bring in law that would curb the media from investigating public servants. It was the media's vehement protest that forced the BJP government in Jaipur to drop the move.
The question here is not of the colour of the party in power. Going by India's democratic track record, every party in power invariably shows its teeth to bite the freedom of the media. This cannot be accepted. Regrettably, the Indian intelligentsia, too, has been politicized, and it plays an increasingly partisan role in which truth becomes the first casualty.
Viewed in this light, the Indian editors collectively have noted that governments and parties in power have often been charged with creating and propagating "fake news" themselves. Besides, the country is awash with digital platforms of all hues and opinions that operate without constraints and which have the potential to cause far more damage, as the Guild rightly puts it.
Be that as it may. Distorted facts, whether officially engineered or prompted individually or by vested interests, do not make a nation great. We, in the media world, are committed to playing an objective and honest role in reporting and monitoring happenings and nonhappenings.
Democracy flourishes best when thinking persons in the media lead the people correctly and put truth and only unbiased truth, before the nation. Pretensions, sycophancy, fallacious reasoning, crass commercialization, mental slavery are all danger signals in the healthy growth of a free press. The media is too explosive to be left to whims and fancies of rulers or vested interests.
What, however, should be the cause of concern is the erosion of the editor's authority in a section of the media in favour of crude marketing manipulations or the hanging sword of authority over journalists. We have to serve the people. The very essence of democracy is free and unbiased flow of information and freedom that goes with it.



		EDITOR'S MAIL FROM THE EDITOR POLITICAL IRONY POLITICS OF CONFLICT UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY QUESTION PAPER LEAKS FRANKLY SPEAKING REALPOLITIK SHAME INDIA ! SHAME INDIA ! SIGNS OF THE TIMES POLITICAL SCENE EXPORT DRIVE KASHMIR WATCH KASHMIR WATCH HIMACHAL PRADESH POLITICS IN PUNJAB CHANDIGARH DIARY COMMONWEALTH GAMES HITS & MISSES INDIA'S TIBET POLICY SYRIAN CRISIS REMEMBERING S. NIHAL SINGH REMEMBERING TVR BOOK BAZAAR BOOK BAZAAR YOGA IN DAILY LIFE STORY OF GURUGRAM CINEMA ART OF LIVING Issue:May' 2018 Subscribe Now	MATTERS OF PUBLIC POLICY Rapes : Fear of the Law the only answer At long last a better sense has prevailed upon the Central government and it has decided to impose death penalty on child rapists. Fine. But why only for rapists of children below 12? Why leave out all those women, irrespective of the age factor, who become the victims of such heinous crimes? As a nation, we have to ensure foolproof safety and honour of women as well as children. For years, I have been pleading for death penalty and setting up of a chain of fast-track courts, both in urban and rural India, for such gruesome criminal acts. Forget about those who under the cover of "human rights" or political considerations stand for the rapists. For us, women's rights and honour are more sacred than anything else. It is a pity that incidents of rape are often given political colours instead of becoming a display of unified resolve to fix up criminals. The latest such case relates to Kathua (Jammu) in which an eight-yearold child who was raped and murdered. In May 2017 two bus molestation incidents in Punjab – one at Moga and the other near Khanna – were given a political twist as the heinous acts took place in the then SAD-BJP – run state of Punjab. In the Moga incident a 13-year-old girl was molested and thrown out of a moving bus. Regrettably, such shockingly shameful incidents of rape and murder continue everywhere. So do replay acts of shadow-boxing among rival political actors. True, Indians are, by and large, highly religious people. But amidst changing social habits, norms, male mindset, ethical standards nothing can work except Fear of the Law. Beyond the provisions of the latest ordinance by the Modi government, we urgently need radical reforms in legal provisions, judicial processes, police forces and delinking investigation from the law enforcement. We also ought to have an effective women police force. It is true that in the wake of the Justice Verma committee recommendations after the Nirbhaya incident of December 12, 2012, certain legal provisions relating to sexual offences were strengthened by the UPA government. Some provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act have been changed. Even the definition of rape has been expanded to incorporate offences like acid attack, sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking. The Modi government also made changes in the Juvenile Justice Act under which juveniles above 16 are tried as adults in serious crimes like rape and murder. The latest ordinance is no doubt a step forward in the country's relentless battles against children women rapes and murders. But I doubt whether it would be a deterrent enough for crimes against them. What now comes as a shock is the statement of the BJP government's Union Minister Santosh Gangwar. He says, "in such a huge country, if one or two cases are reported, one should not make such a big deal out of it". I wonder whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gag order to BJP MPs and MLAs on "not to give masala" to the media by their "needless remarks" will work ! It is equally disturbing that the minister does not know the horror stories of the nation. As many as over 40 rapes take place in the country every hour. Under the BJP-run Central government in 2016 as many 3,38,594 crimes against women took place. Of these 38,947 (11 per cent) were rape cases. Jammu and Kashmir reported 256 rapes in 2016. In the BJP-run Uttar Pradesh, there were cases of 4,816 rapes. In Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra there were 4,882 and 4,189 such incidents respectively. And only one in four rapists is convicted. We have also ever increasing number of MPs with criminal records. What is more, 30 per cent of all state legislators have a criminal background and of 1,581 sitting legislators with criminal records, 51 are involved in crimes against women alone. Of 48 MLAs of these, four have rape cases against them. No doubt, public outcry over Unnao, Kathua and number of such cases of crimes against children and women has been rising. We have numerous politicians in our midst who still blame women for being dressed "provocatively" and who are inclined to condone male crimes by saying "boys will be boys" and "mistakes can occur" or "what a big deal" ! It is legitimate to expect that our politicians should show the way and try to change the outlandish male mindset. As in many other cases, here too the responsibility of reforming the male mind rests with the civil society and social reformers. Enough is enough. We have to keep up the fight on for the safety, dignity and honour of women and children. In the final analysis, nothing can work if there is no fear of the law among potential criminals. Look at Singapore and Hong Kong. Even in the middle of night a woman can walk safely to her home without fear. This element of fear can be generated, if the laws are not only enforced ruthlessly but also are seen to be enforced by the police without fear or favour of the powers-that-be. Another critical element which could have electrifying effect in the prevailing perverse atmosphere is a clear and categorical provision in the law for death sentence for all sorts of rapists. Equally pertinent is fast-tracking of cases concerning sexual offences against girls and women. Fast-track courts under High Court-level judges should be expected to give their verdicts within three months. The Supreme Court needs to promptly look into all such related matters. There can be no half way approach to justice. The problem is very serious. We, as a people and media persons, must force the authorities as well as the judiciary to act fast. Fake News and Freedom of Media How does the concept of Fake News, which got globally into currency after the running battle of President Donald Trump with the high-profile American media, have any relevance to the Indian situation? The answer to this query could be both 'Yes' and 'No'. In the first place, against the backdrop of the digital setting, the entire range and dimension of India's media too has changed dramatically. Secondly, real or fake news, in a way, is also part of the old game of media control even in democratic establishments, India included, to keep journalists under leash for "reports" which may not be palatable to the powers-that-be. There is, of course, no universally accepted definition of "fake news". In the changing world of media, the key question has to be whether there is "a deliberate attempt at providing manipulated or fabricated information to mislead readers or viewers. Such matters are for media organizations to examine and take a view, and not the prerogative of governmental authorities. At a protest against the Rajiv Gandhi government's Defamation Bill in 1988, (from left), editor and leader of the BJP, K R Malkani; editor and activist Kuldip Nayar; editor-author Khushwant Singh; commentator and editor of The Statesman, C R Irani; and founder of The Indian Express Group, Ramnath Goenka. I am not sure what prompted the Smriti Irani-run Information and Broadcasting Ministry's "fake news" order announcing new guidelines to govern the accreditation of journalists based on screening if they are indulging in false news. Mercifully, better sense prevailed in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to set aside the I & B Ministry's order after sharp reactions from media bodies, including the Editors' Guild of India, Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association and Federation of Press Clubs of India and Press Club of India. The Guild rightly condemned the move as "arbitrary" and an attempt by the government to "police the media". Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, along with supporters, during a rally to protest the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill , 2017, in Jaipur The Guild clearly stated that the recent reconstitution of the Press Council of India (PCI) was done in a manner that gave rise to doubts over the independence of the institution and its ability to be a neutral umpire. Even the reconstitution of the Central Press Accreditation Committee had led to questions over the non-transparent process being followed by the I & B Ministry by rejecting the Guild's nominees. Indeed, with elections on the horizon, I look at the move as a desperate attempt to muzzle the media and chill the voices of dissent. As the Editors' Guild of India points out, the manner in which the Press Council and the accreditation panel were I am not sure what prompted the Smriti Irani-run Information and Broadcasting Ministry's "fake news" order announcing new guidelines to govern the accreditation of journalists based on screening if they are indulging in false news. Mercifully, better sense prevailed in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to set aside the I & B Ministry's order after sharp reactions from media bodies, including the Editors' Guild of India, Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association and Federation of Press Clubs of India and Press Club of India. The Guild rightly condemned the move as "arbitrary" and an attempt by the government to "police the media". reconstituted recently does raise questions of fairness and transparency in the name of penalizing "inconvenient" journalists and media organizations. I must say with a total sense of pride that the press in India has invariably acted as a watchdog of democracy. It has reported cases of miscarriage of justice. It has exposed the wrongs perpetuated on the weaker sections of society by feudal lords and governmental authorities. It has exposed some of the mightiest persons in the area of corruption and socio-economic injustice. It also knows how and when to pounce upon the authorities to safeguard freedom and the people's right to information. Looking back, the way the journalists of all shades and opinions united against Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's illconceived Defamation Bill aimed at curbing their freedom underlines its basic resilience. The media personnel raised their voice against the Bihar Press Bill supported by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This speaks a lot of Indian Media Power. Diversity and richness of the media are not ornaments of a democracy but essential elements for survival. What, however, is disquieting is the BJP has not learnt lessons from the past wrong doings by the Congress government. To give one example: the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan sought to bring in law that would curb the media from investigating public servants. It was the media's vehement protest that forced the BJP government in Jaipur to drop the move. The question here is not of the colour of the party in power. Going by India's democratic track record, every party in power invariably shows its teeth to bite the freedom of the media. This cannot be accepted. Regrettably, the Indian intelligentsia, too, has been politicized, and it plays an increasingly partisan role in which truth becomes the first casualty. Viewed in this light, the Indian editors collectively have noted that governments and parties in power have often been charged with creating and propagating "fake news" themselves. Besides, the country is awash with digital platforms of all hues and opinions that operate without constraints and which have the potential to cause far more damage, as the Guild rightly puts it. Be that as it may. Distorted facts, whether officially engineered or prompted individually or by vested interests, do not make a nation great. We, in the media world, are committed to playing an objective and honest role in reporting and monitoring happenings and nonhappenings. Democracy flourishes best when thinking persons in the media lead the people correctly and put truth and only unbiased truth, before the nation. Pretensions, sycophancy, fallacious reasoning, crass commercialization, mental slavery are all danger signals in the healthy growth of a free press. The media is too explosive to be left to whims and fancies of rulers or vested interests. What, however, should be the cause of concern is the erosion of the editor's authority in a section of the media in favour of crude marketing manipulations or the hanging sword of authority over journalists. We have to serve the people. The very essence of democracy is free and unbiased flow of information and freedom that goes with it.