Editor,
The recent horrific gang-rape and heinous murder of veterinarian Priyanka Reddy of Hyderabad, inflamed the entire country with mass protests and demand of capital punishment to the rape-criminals. This is not the first uprising against such heinous crimes. Thousands of Priyanka or girl children like Asifa, an 8-year old minor girl are victims of the same atrocious crime. Despite strong agitations from different women’s organisations, and strict orders and ordeals from the Government, the trauma and plight of the women remained same. Challenging the law and order of the Government, the culprits are reigning in full swing.
I would like to raise my voice against the administration of the city like Hyderabad which failed completely to save Priyanka, whose sister, reported the incident to the police without delay. If police was not reluctant to pursue the case then and there, such a brutal incidents in the evening and night hours could have been checked. It is a shameful discredit for the administration! The country, where women cannot move freely and safely; where women’s chastity is at stake at every step we cannot claim that we are living in a civilised country.
The ancient civilization of India started with great respect for women, but in that very India, women are today inhumanly tortured and being used as objects of sexual harassment and murder etc. Despite high educational qualifications the plight of Indian women has not improved.
According to the latest crimes statistics about 33,000 rapes were reported in India in 2017; and 17,557 cases of child rapes were recorded in the country in 2017. But where is Justice? Justice delayed is Justice dishonoured.
The Chief Minister of Telangana, where Hyderabad is located, used the incident to argue that female state employees should not work after dark. Is this a solution? If women have equal rights in every aspect why should they refrain from night service? For lack of security and safety ? Is this not an example of lawlessness and anarchy? Why should women who are an equal and essential part of the society, not move freely and safely in their own country? Why should they surrender to the culprits helplessly to be charred to death? If law and order is sufficiently strong and alert, such unfortunate events would have been checked.
Stringent punishment should be given to rape-culprits who are playing with the lives of innocent young girls and children. As the miscreants charred the body of Priyanka, each and every culprits related to that atrocious act, should be equally charred to death. That will be an appropriate and exemplary punishment. And in future, thousands of Priyanka will be saved from the clutches of such heartless humans. The cruel and beastly creatures forget that their mothers, sisters wives and daughters, are all women! What can be more painful than that! Being a woman, the heart bleeds but finds no solution.
Yours etc
Uma Purkayastha,
Shillong -4
Time to censor TV serials
Editor,
There was a time when we had only Doordarshan with its own good programmes which were clean and harmless. Even the serials aired during that time had their own values and most of them were meant for the whole family. Today the scenario has changed and it is only with anxiety and anguish that one can sit in front of the TV. The serials are still there and instead of one or two now it is hundreds aired by some hundred and one channels and in different languages!
Parents and elders who get lured to these serials definitely have to give a thought for the little ones who knowingly and unknowingly watch the serials along with adults containing only matters meant for the latter. Serial makers whose only aim is to increase the TRP rates and make big money are least bothered about the matter stuffed in their soaps which most often contain illicit adult relationships and conflicts, clashes and the like. Serials today are endless and the serial makers only aim at creating such dragging soaps just to get sponsorship profits and high viewing rates. The long dragging monotonous serials have an upper class air about them with hot bedroom and board room quarrels which serve no purpose for the audience ,especially the younger generation. Many of these serials give a wrong picture of adult relationships and the society in general. Let serial makers go in for short good serials with good family stories showing a positive note to the society which at present urgently needs a remedy to escape from all sorts of pressure. It is high time the I & B ministry reins in serial makers and producers. A censorship board for television serials is a must today.
Yours etc.,
M Pradyu
Kannur
Unnao rape survivor burnt
Editor,
Close on the heels of the gang-rape and murder of a Hyderabad woman, follows another horrific incident of setting the Unnao rape survivor ablaze in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district on Thursday by the same group of men who had raped her earlier. The 23-year old woman reportedly suffered 90% burns and has been shifted to Civil Hospital in Lucknow. It may be recalled that the Unnao rape incident had indeed shaken the conscience of the country. The expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar and his stooges raped the girl and they put her family members to untold miseries. It was a classic example of how the powerful and the influential could commit heinous crime and easily escape the law here.
The victim’s saga of ordeals started when she approached the then Unnao sitting MLA-prior to the tragic events. It was the Unnao BJP MLA, Kuldeep Singh Sengar who raped her at his residence on June 04, 2017, when she went in to seek the help of the MLA to find her a job. When the father of the girl wanted to lodge a complaint with the police, he was beaten up by the police and the MLA’s men. Some days later her father succumbed to his injuries.
On July 28, 2019 the rape victim and her lawyer got seriously injured and her two family members died when a truck struck their car. This tragic incident was not an accident but a well-scripted conspiracy. Moreover, the truck had blackened the license plates, and the police officers assigned to provide security to the alleged victim were not present. The lame excuse offered by the security was that there was no enough space to accompany the victim in the car. This was a glaring lapse on the part of the police security as well.
In a cruel act that puts the country to shame, the rape-accused and his friends took the woman outside her village and into the fields and doused kerosene on her before setting her on fire. And now the incident too was not an off-the-cuff act, but a well-planned one cocking a snook at all in authority. In this case the court has to pronounce judgment at lightning speed awarding maximum punishment possible to get justice to her family and all those who stand by her.
Yours etc.,
TK Nandanan,
Vis email