Mom Raped

Nidhu Bhusan Das : A mom, the other day, reported she had been raped at gun point. Courageous lady, no doubt. She is gallant and haunts night clubs, leaving her daughters back home. She enjoys life to the last lees, and knows she has freedom, unlimited. In the republic all have freedom. Everyone enjoys it if (s)he has the capacity. The estranged mom has that capacity. In her FIR she named the rapist and his accomplices. But the named persons were not on the scene, one of them studies in Canada. How come, she named them! She filed the FIR five days after the alleged incident. Why is the delay? She reasons: ‘I was traumatized; I was in constant fear… receiving calls threatening dire consequences if I go to the police.’ Well, it may so happen. It is natural criminals try to scare the victims off the police for their safety. The mom was within her right to go to the night club at midnight for pleasure or, what they call ‘chilling’. She might have the need for chilling because she is estranged. ‘Mom, it was not right you agreed to be in their car for a lift. You are wise enough…. Even then! I cannot understand,’ remarked her elder daughter, puzzled. ‘Stop sermoning, you …you pig! Try to understand,’ she retorted. In a night club ambience, strangers could become friends, under the dim lights, in sync with the suitable dance and music, and under the influence of liquor. Her daughters know she is fond of liquor. The mom is well within her right to sip liquor. The government has the duty to protect inebriated ladies, and escort them back home in the wee hours to safeguard their civil right in such cases. In a republic everyone should be protected. The mom did not ask for protection. She thought she was safe with them whom, subsequently, she arraigned, though her naming them was found wrong after CCTV footage was checked by the detectives. Why was the mom wrong, ab initio, in identifying the wrong doers? Maybe, they impersonated for obvious reasons. If it is so, the mom, arguably was not in intimate relations with them for a long time. It is possible they became bosom friends only that night during the orgy. The mom is within her right to befriend anyone during a drunken orgy. Yet she was raped. It is correct to have pleasure at a night club but it is incorrect to rape a lady who is a participant in the orgy. This is not a civilized behavior permissible under the law which allows night club culture. What has been done to the mom is a criminal offence. The mom has been brutalized. The media glare is on the incident. A lot of space and air time are allotted to focus on the issue. Some opinion leaders have raised the issue of many moms raped repeatedly in rural areas during their anti-government agitations for protecting their land under plough and wondered why the media were not as generous then as they are now. They indicate it has been so because the present mom is a socialite while the rural moms have rustic life, and, therefore, do not deserve much attention. Media gatekeepers are a privileged lot and they have the prerogative to decide which is to be foregorunded and which is to be relegated to the background. But the mom has the right to be awarded justice. Also those found culprit must be punished. The rapist and his accomplices have, undoubtedly, committed a heinous crime, whatever be the circumstances. Now what were the circumstances? Let us read the observations of the elder daughter of the mom in her diary the day following the alleged incident of the rape inside a car on the run. She writes: ‘Mom is so cruel. She leaves us every night in the house to have pleasure in night clubs. We feel left out, cannot have sleep. She often returns before dawn. When the door bell rings we are assured she is back. This brings relief. Her boy friends help her up to the door. She has many boy friends. They lick and kiss her in love. She reciprocates. We do not dare to say it is reckless. She is heady, desperate. We believe she can tackle boys. What happened that night is a different story. She did not share it with us. We did not find a difference in her attitude that dawn. She was as usual. She has impeccable capacity to keep to herself what she thinks she should not share. Papa left her because of her habit of going out at night. Papa is unsmart and outmoded …. misfit for her.’ Be it what may, she demands and deserves justice. The culprits must be punished.