Thank God, we are still sane  

Thank God, we are still sane. The Gurugram police managed to arrest two rapists who had violated the modesty of a young mother on the night of May 30. Tragically, she was travelling with her nine-month-old baby who was thrown on to the road and consequently died on the spot.

There was deafening silence both on the part of the civil society as well as the political establishment. Even media – except for The Times of India and the National Herald – was keeping mum over the brutal crime close to the national capital.

Unlike the Nirbhaya rape in 2012 when women groups, the political class and the media together turned the rape crime into a national issue, there was no protest in the recent Gurugram case. It forced National Herald to wonder whether we are maintaining “double standards” when it comes to rapes because we protest only when it is politically correct.

We, in disgust, even wrote that if rapists are allowed to go unpunished and there is no protest either, it would give us the feeling of living in an abnormal society which does not care even when a mother is raped and her child dies in the melee.

Well, the police have finally arrested two persons, Yogender and Amit, who had committed the crime. It happened most likely because media reported the initial police apathy in the case. One can now expect that the victim will get justice. She may now have some solace that those who killed her baby and raped her are behind the bars.

It gives us a sense of satisfaction, too. We were outraged at the crime and raised our voice demanding quick action. We are relieved that the culprits have been brought to book. It makes us to say with a sense of relief: Thank God, we are sane because there is still some hope for survivors of the worst crime against women.

Yet, we are constraint in saying that we still have miles to go as far as the rape problem is concerned.