As I had warned at the time, the Ruchika Girhotra case is slowly fading from the headlines.
The media have had their fortnight of excitement and the great Indian middle class has had its two weeks of outrage.
Had it not been for the smug foolishness of SPS Rathore, the case would have missed its last appearance in the papers and on TV news. But Rathore took it upon himself to tell journalists that he had been inspired to smile by Pandit Nehru. The public indignation over this claim was so massive – who would associate Rathore’s lecherous smirk with Panditji’s warm smile? – That India’s collective desire to give him a tight slap returned.
But assuming that Rathore keeps his mouth shut from now on, I doubt if the case will command the same level of public attention again. In our minds, we have decided that Ruchika died because Rathore is an evil man and have concluded that if Rathore gets punished, justice will have been done.
In fact, it is not so simple. Contrary to what TV anchors may tell you, it is difficult to try a man again for the same crime on the basis of the same evidence. And while he may well be guilty of abetment to suicide, when that charge was first leveled, it was thrown out by two different courts.
Besides, I don’t even think that Rathore is the real problem. He is merely a symptom of the sort of systemic rot, depravity and corruption that led to Ruchika’s death and to the hounding of her family. It suits those who run the system to allow Rathore to be the fall guy – after all, he is a truly loathsome character – because it prevents us from looking further and doing anything about a system that preys on the weak and works to the benefit of those in authority.
Let’s look at the Ruchika case with some detachment. Nobody can deny that what Rathore did – grabbing Ruchika and groping her – was both revolting and disgusting. But equally, let’s accept that this incident by itself is not unusual in today’s India where officials rape defenceless women with a sickening regularity. Nor is it enough to explain our outrage at the circumstances of the case.
The reasons we are upset are as follows. One, the police refused to register the molestation complaint. Two, Rathore was protected by Haryana’s notoriously corrupt politicians. Three, false cases were filed against Ruchika’s brother. Four, her brother was repeatedly tortured by the police. Five, Rathore arranged for goondas to abuse Ruchika each time she left her house. Six, he forced her school to throw her out on a flimsy pretext. Seven, the case took years to come to any kind of conclusion. And eight, even now, with all this publicity, justice has still not been done and Rathore is still smirking.
Given that these are the reasons for our anger, our efforts should be directed towards revamping the system so that such abuses of power cannot recur in future.
This is not easy to do. But equally, it is not impossible. We need, first of all, to fix some kind of accountability on the police. The officers who filed the false cases against Ruchika’s brother and who tortured him are still at large. Many continue to occupy positions of influence. No doubt, they also continue to misuse their power in the same sorts of ways.
| "While this blame game goes on, thousands of Ruchikas are driven to suicide and many families like the Girhotras are denied justice." |
Any government that was sincere about righting the wrongs done to Ruchika’s family would suspend these officers and after due process, either arrest or at least sack the worst offenders. In fact, the Haryana government has done nothing. The policemen flourish.
And why has the chief minister done nothing? It’s because India’s politicians are in bed with the police. They help each other subvert the law and persecute the citizenry. Over the years, police commissions have written innumerable reports suggesting revamps of the system to break the politician-policeman nexus. But because it is politicians who would have to implement these recommendations, nothing gets done. And the state of the police force gets worse and worse.
Imagine a situation where politicians had not been able to protect Rathore and where policemen had known they would be held accountable for their torture of Ruchika’s brother. None of what happened to the Girhotras would have taken place. But because the system is so rotten, the police were able to behave with brazen impunity, sending goondas to taunt Ruchika to her death and putting pressure on the school to expel her.
Consider also the nature of justice in India. The way the judicial system works these days, the only beneficiaries are lawyers. The ordinary Indian can expect no justice from a system that is over-loaded, complicated and subject to decade-long delays. And that’s before you get into the issue of corruption.
Each time people like me write articles about the need for judicial reform, we are assured by politicians and justices that reforms are on the way. In fact, very little changes. Judges will tell you that they are working at 65 per cent of capacity and that new judges need to be appointed. Politicians will tell you that it is the judges who refuse to fill the vacancies. And so on.
While this blame game goes on, thousands of Ruchikas are driven to suicide and many families like the Girhotras are denied justice. Even now, as we focus on Rathore’s smirk, those in charge of our legal system are laughing all the way to the bank. Once again, they have escaped censure and once again, the public has failed to draw the obvious conclusion: It’s not just the individual, it is the system itself that is at fault.
In fact, the only systemic change that has occurred in the two decades since Ruchika died, is in the role of the media. I admit that TV channels have often behaved with a lack of balance in covering this case, but let’s not forget that the only reason why Ruchika’s father is able to demand some measure of justice for his dead daughter is because the media have highlighted the case. And ask yourself this: if the case had been afforded this kind of coverage when Rathore first molested Ruchika, would she still be alive today? Would the police and the politicians have got away with ruining the lives of the Girhotra family?
But alas, the media can only do so much. And, tragically, we often move on to the next big thing before ensuring that justice is done. I fear that something like that will happen in the Ruchika case. New charges will be filed against Rathore. The case will take a while to come to any conclusion. Ruchika’s tragedy will slowly fade from public memory. And it will be business as usual for India’s politicians and policemen.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that this time we will stay the course. And that we will demand the systemic changes that are so desperately needed.
Otherwise, Ruchika will have died in vain.
Name:
Please enter name
E-mail:
Your email id will not be published.
Please enter email
Please enter a valid email address eg. xyz@abc.com !
Friend's Name:
Please enter friend name
Friend's E-mail:
Your email id will not be published.
Please enter friend email
Please enter a valid email address eg. xyz@abc.com !
Additional Text:
Security code:
Other Articles
-
It is not only the right thing to do on an intuitive level but also entirely in accordance with the principles on which this nation was founded.
-
My point is that in a country as large as ours, a numbers game makes no sense unless you look at the larger picture.
-
It is tempting to see the revolt as a failure because Pawar got nothing of consequence in Delhi. But it would be a mistake to do so.
-
This was an unnecessary reshuffle, forced on the nation by Manmohan Singh’s unwillingness to hold on to the finance portfolio.
-
And the end has an emotional power that is unusual for comic book pictures. What a pity it is the last movie in this trilogy!
See All