No country for rapists.

This picture has been doing the rounds on social media for a few days now. Some people have attempted to challenge the BBC's "representation" of India with these figures. But are the numbers any comfort at all?



"Rapes are a shame but propaganda on it: WORSE"
Clearly, a section of our population, our media and our legislators believe that a "propaganda fueled documentary" IS worse than the fact that the rapes actually happened.
If the propaganda fueled documentary portrayed factual inaccuracies, go ahead, berate it. But if you think that reporting the darker half of our country should be banned, there really is no difference between us and North Korea, is there? 
We are by no means a country of rapists. Certainly not the kind that was responsible for the Delhi gangrape case. But think about. Isn't it true that lots of people DO NOT disagree with the opinions of the defense lawyers? Isn't it true that at least 94% of marital rape in India goes unreported? Isn't it true that despite looking at the facts in that picture and much before that documentary was aired, almost every single girl you know is,was and probably will be for quite some time, afraid to travel alone at night on a bus or even walk on the street alone at night? Isn't it true that some will question the very need for girls to walk alone at night? This isn't a brush-under-the-carpet minority. It's a lot of people both rich and poor, educated and illiterate, men and women, hindu and muslim and from other religions who have mindsets that are stuck in the 17th century. I'm not ashamed of India. I'm ashamed of those Indians.




The picture asks an important question: How many documentaries does the BBC do about the social system of the USA? From that question alone, 2 things are clear.
1) The person who made this picture has not watched the documentary. The documentary is a series of interviews of the people related to the Nirbhaya case.
2) The person who made this picture admits that the statements made by various Indians in the documentary is a telling reflection of our social system.

Why doesn't the BBC do documentaries on the USA? Are there no problems there? Surely there are. And the BBC must be asked to do something about it. The BBC might have chosen this case purely for commercial interests and because they felt it would be easy to gain access to an Indian convict on death row as opposed to an American prisoner. But neither of those is a reason to ban it. Why are we afraid of debate? Of action? Why do we love big statements and promises? Why do we care so much for words and adjectives?

We're all proud of India. But we will not blindly defend its people's short comings. We will strive to fix it. And then if the BBC does a piece like this on India, 1.2 Billion of us will stand up to them and send them back with their heads hanging in shame.

Stay Safe. Stay Informed.

Anirudh Dinesh,
Editor-At-Large, Dudurudh.

Comments

  1. Are you seriously comparing the world's largest democracy to the world's most oppressive and terrorizing regime? Even mentioning such a comparison is surely a case of 'Reductio ad absurdum' if not 'reductio ad ridiculosum'. The problem here is not the documentary itself but the hypocrisy behind the mass hysteria being created world over by the media giants. Over the past year the impression amongst people world over is that most Indian men are rapists or support them. Top media organizations like Reuters have rated India as the worst place in the world for women. Can you believe that?! Our nation is considered worse than the so-called 'middle-eastern' nations where it is a crime for a woman to drive or venture out of their homes alone and people are regularly stoned just because they fell in love. To top it all, you must have read about the professor who refused an internship to an Indian student because of the 'rape culture'. This shows the extent to which the world media has brainwashed the minds of the people just to shift the focus from more pressing issues back home. Further, there are reports today of the BBC having banned a documentary about sexual harassment in corporates.
    I'd suggest that you read this https://mariawirthblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/why-this-focus-on-rapes-in-india-by-world-media/ . This was written about a year ago. This shows clearly that the major media groups are full of hypocrisy. One begins to wonder if their real motive is to slander India, the reason for which remains a mystery though.
    As George Carlin said ' There's a lot of bullshit coming your way that needs to be detected and avoided!' The ban on the documentary is just a symbolic gesture to show that we Indians (the government) does not approve of this incessant slander.

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  2. The comparison was limited to the case of censorship alone( multiple instances, not just this one).
    In this post, I have only tried to show that there is a mindset issue in our country. I don't suppose that you imply that it doesn't exist? The number of families in India where women aren't allowed to venture out of their homes isn't small. Couples ARE assaulted in India just because they fell in love. Except, in India, unlike the middle east, it isn't legally enforced. Fringe elements make sure of it anyway. So while I agree that Reuters is wrong to say that this is worst place for women, I'm not sure that it proves that this is necessarily a safe place either.
    In any case, that debate MUST happen. I have no reservations about it. But in order to have a decent public debate, you do not need to ban documentaries that don't agree with one side of the debate. And I'm sorry but this IS a "pressing issue back home". And we'd do good by trying to set it right instead of trying to get a PR makeover.

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  3. No rational person denies the existence of a problem. It is a pressing issue ''back home'' but it should remain "back home''. What the world media is doing is similar to what the Nazi propaganda ministry was doing back in the day- blowing things way out of proportion and brainwashing the people with vividly exaggerated reports and imagery. Don't you see that? It is like how the Nazis had the Germans convinced that the Jews were the root cause of all problems on earth! I must once again direct your attention towards the incident with the German Professor who denies Internships to Indian men because according to her all Indian men will try to rape her female students. Are you not able to appreciate the gravity of the situation? The media has the world convinced that Indian Man==Rapist, and you are saying that we shouldn't be worried about getting a PR makeover. This is not PR, it is propaganda.
    Now about the so called ban. The government has not banned the whole documentary, but the part of it which shows the interview with one of the convicts. The people who made the documentary did not have the required permissions anyway, as the government permitted the documentary for non commercial and non profit use only, but BBC used it commercially.
    You say that the number of families where women are not allowed to venture out is not small and that couples are assaulted. This is true, but this country is virtually paradise compared to the conditions women have to endure in the Muslim fundamentalist regimes elsewhere in the world where rape is hardly considered an offence and the testimony of women is not valid in a court of law. Do we hear anything about these in world media? That is what true curtailment of press freedom looks like. These places probably have never even heard of ''freedom''.
    The point I'm trying to make is that while one must not hesitate to call a spade a spade, it is just ridiculously absurd to refer to it as a Mechanised Heavy-Duty Bedrock Excavator!

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