Former CJI Suggests Marital Rape Should Not Be A Crime. We Think That’s Nonsense

There are quite a few things that put me off during the day. Getting out of bed, for starters.  Someone taking the auto I am hailing, bad coffee and right at the top of that list is listening to dumb statements being made by prominent leading figures of the nation. Safe to say, all of them happen religiously on the daily. Especially the last one, Indian men don’t pass off any opportunity at disappointing us. Such consistency.

Turns out, this time around, it’s the Former Chief Justice of India, Mr. Dipak Misra who suggests that marital rape in India must not be a crime. Yes that is right, and we wish it was something he had said by mistake, but no. The man further went on to justify his illogical idea by adding, “I do not think that marital rape should be regarded as an offence in India, because it will create absolute anarchy in families and our country is sustaining itself because of the family platform which upholds family values.”

Not just this, it gets worse because he went on to say that he believes the notion of marital rape being a crime is a gift of the west and regarded it as a foreign concept. So basically, if we’re getting this right, family values in India mean that women, once married, must politely bend over to serve their partners and their whims. The alien concept of ‘consent’ is probably borrowed from neighbouring countries and needs to be chased out of the system.

So much for moving towards a progressive India when the Chief Justice himself condemns the need for mutual consent when it comes to sex, because well, entitlement.

The Indian Penal Code, in account to section 375, does not regard forced sexual intercourse by a man with his wife as rape and the government argues for it by saying that if that were to happen, it would become easy to harass the husbands. Apparently, the tiny possibility that hapless, innocent men will be blamed for something that is technically a crime, needs to be eliminated.  It is  far more important than the women who are the victims.

You know what sucks more though? That it’s not only the men that think this way. Maneka Gandhi has also previously stated (quite controversially, might I add), that “The concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to…mindset of the society to treat marriage as a sacrament, etc.”

We want to say what but honestly, we’ve tuned these people out.