Even before the controversy following the gang-rape and death of the Dalit girl from Hathras and her cremation in the dead of night, could die down, comes the news of another Dalit woman who was also allegedly gang-raped on Tuesday last and died on the way to hospital. In the Hathras case the police is now trying to water down the grievous nature of the case by saying that there is no evidence of rape and no trace of semen. It matters less whether there was rape or not. Even otherwise, the inhuman manner in which she was assaulted, and the equally brutal manner in which the police behaved in its aftermath were by themselves horrendous and barbarous.
The Yogi Adityanath government’s response that her family would be provided a good sum as compensation and that a relative from the family would be given a job does not reduce the impunity with which the police dealt with the case. Rather it is an affront on the family and the society. The tragedy that the Dalit family was forced to face at the hands of a set of upper caste men and the unscrupulous cops is a saga in itself. The chief minister seems to take this matter as nothing more than a routine one which his state is used to. Insensitivity of the political class to such acts is most abominable.
So many brutal murders of girls have taken place in the state involving even the high and mighty, including legislators of the ruling BJP. The law, as in most cases in this country, fails to nail the guilty, and such men keep escaping punishment, or are jailed on record but are allowed freedom to carry on with their nefarious activities.
The scenario of landlords wielding guns as a matter of social prestige is a culture rampant in UP and Bihar. Mulayam Singh Yadav was a gun-wielding gangster first before he became a minister. His party, the Samajwadi Party includes a large number of goons. The BJP has its own brand of goons in the form of VHP etc preying on poor Muslims. Mayawati, the Dalit leader who ran the government there for some years, kept goons on a tight leash. Most leaders however, looked the other way. A bifurcation of the large state, on grounds that administration can be better achieved has not helped much. Its bifurcation into two or three more states might help, provided there is also the political will to set things right.
In the present case, what the police or the forensic reports have stated must be taken with a pinch of salt. The police are complicit in the crime, hence the need for the quick cremation.