Jaya Bachchan Called For Public Lynching For The Hyderabad Rape Case Accused. We Don’t Know If That’s Right But We Feel The Same Rage.
We live in a country where sexual violence against women is more common than the number of daughters born, or rather let being born in some areas. In 2016, 4 women were raped every hour in our country and 38, 947 rape cases were reported the same year out of which less than 50% of the victims got justice. And since then, things haven’t looked up, worsened rather. Time and again, a rape case surfaces and scares us to our very bones! With the amount of monstrosity that reflects in these crimes, we are left feeling scared, infuriated and disgusted all at the same time. We claim to try hard to find the solution and make it all just go away so for once we can feel safe in our own home country. But it doesn’t happen! Nothing changes and we continue to live life dangerously, by merely being women in a world that’s sickening to its core.
The gruesome rape and murder of Dr. Priyanka Reddy, a vet who lived in Hyderabad has left the entire nation shaken up, even though it wouldn’t be for the first time. She was just going about her daily routine in which she parked her scooter at the toll plaza, but little did she know what awaited her that evening. She came to find her scooter punctured by the men who were responsible for destroying her. They pretended to help her but gang-raped her, killed her and burned her body. And just like that, a woman was wiped off mercilessly from the face of earth. What had she done to deserve that? Nothing!
When we witness such crimes happening, our blood boils and rightly so. You feel like the criminals must get a punishment that’s ten times worse than what they did to the woman. So I don’t blame Jaya Bachchan for suggesting that the accused should be lynched. “The accused in the rape cases should be named and shamed. These kind of people should be brought out in public and lynched,” she said.
#JayaBachchan : Two wrong does not make a Right think. Male haters like u are responsible to destroy trust among gender & such crime increase due to yr such hate speech.
Already u amend rape law, #Hangdeath Punishment with logic will reduce crime, now ask yourself why it failed? pic.twitter.com/O0W6xm9YvC— SwarupSarkar (@swarup1972) December 2, 2019
However, it sparked a debate and people called her out for encouraging mob justice. “People have turned insane!! Yes we are angry! Yes we want fast justice. But #JayaBachchan get a hold of yourselves. We want to remain India and not turn into Lynchistan — dont encourage people to start lynching on suspicion without due process and investigation,” wrote a user. “Two wrong does not make a Right think. Male haters like u are responsible to destroy trust among gender & such crime increase due to yr such hate speech. Already u amend rape law, #Hangdeath Punishment with logic will reduce crime, now ask yourself why it failed?” wrote another.
What is wrong with the remarks of #JayaBachchan? She gave voice to all women of this country.
— Kriti (@vajpeyikriti) December 2, 2019
Some people supported Jaya Bachchan’s sentiment. A user wrote, “What is wrong with the remarks of #JayaBachchan? She gave voice to all women of this country.”
https://twitter.com/SwamiGeetika/status/1201422715493597184
I mean, how is not natural to feel that way? How is it not natural to have wanted this sooner? We as a nation have witnessed Nirbhaya being brutally raped and left to die. Protests happened, outcries happened. But did it put a stop to this monstrosity? The Kathua and Unnao rape cases made our insides shake with fear and anger. From a six month old new born to a 100 year old lady in a village, no one was spared. And now, yet another case that exhibits the sorry state of our society.
In Parliament, India’s defense minister said this has “brought shame to the entire country.” How? If rapes happen every day with some being more gruesome than the others while our lawmakers watch the compromised security in our country, shamelessly – how did this bring shame? They say such things and then another incident happens, and then they say the exact same thing. We don’t want you telling us how shameful this is. We need you to tell us how we can feel safe, or actually no, we need you to make this country that you run safer for us.
In a country where lawmakers blame the victim for getting raped, how do we not get angry? A politician said that she should have called the police instead of her sister. Another politician said women shouldn’t work after dark. And amidst all this, a girl protesting with a sign board asking the question we all want to ask – Why can’t I feel safe in my own India? – got arrested. Because of course, she is the real danger out there, while the perpetrators prepare to hunt their next.
Honestly, at this point we don’t know how to feel anymore. We want to be strong but our government isn’t very re-assuring. There’s always an uproar after a ghastly incident and everything becomes silent a little later until another such incident occurs. There’s no end to this but we badly need one. So excuse me if we feel rage and want to lynch the perpetrators. Excuse me if we want to make them suffer. Excuse me if we want justice and we want it now.
ALSO READ: Dr. Priyanka Reddy, Played By All The Rules And Still Ended Up Getting Raped And Burnt To Death. When Will This Ever Stop?
I don’t know what side of the debate I am on. Because really, I would love to see these rapists get lynched and castrated. But then again, we as a society cannot encourage mob punishments, at least not legally. Unless the country is finally ready to take on giving capital punishment, which in our opinion is the closest we could get to delivering justice to the victims.
But we also understand how this sentiment is bound to get out of hand. Because one thing will lead to another and very soon, it will be applied to everything else. Like extra-marital affairs, stealing, etc. I don’t trust the rationale of our society in that sense. However, I will not deny that if something like this happens to the rapist, I will be very happy with the outcome. So whether Jaya Bachchan’s suggestion is right or wrong, I can’t tell, but her sentiment is definitely right and people must focus their energies on doing better things than trolling her.
