Author: Editorial
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: February 16, 2003
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030216/asp/opinion/story_1674990.asp
Silence can be more expressive than
words. The long silence of the state women's commission following the atrocities
perpetrated on the women in the vehicles forcibly stopped at Dhantala in
Nadia says a host of things. The loudest message is simple: the Party is
above all. Unfortunately for the women's commission, the police this time
were quick to discover the kingpins behind the robbery, murder and assault.
They were two local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders, in league
with known criminals of the area. This was enough to silence the state
women's commission, most of the present members of which owe allegiance
to the CPI(M), and all of whom have been rewarded with such eminence because
of the fiery and intellectually substantial roles they have played in defence
of women's rights.
Corruption is of many kinds, and
it creeps up unregarded. The inertia of the state women's commission is
a symptom of one of the most dangerous kinds, that of the perversion of
the intellect. There are just too many instances in history of such perversion
among the best-intentioned, the most educated and articulate, to harbour
illusions about what this spells - for democracy, civic order, justice,
equality and freedom of speech. In this case, the initial silence of the
commission, and the statements and decisions that have dribbled out later,
show that every single principle upon which the search for justice for
victimized women is based has been turned on its head. It is an added -
and piercing - irony that some of the leading members of the present commission
have struggled to establish these very principles. No investigating team
rushed to the site, either to identify the victims and offer them support
or to ensure that medical and police records were correctly made wherever
possible. Instead, evidence was left to be lost according to the will of
the powers that rule the area. The commission's half-hearted invitation
to the women to come and depose before it or decide on a place where they
could be interviewed was obviously meaningless. The commission and other
women's bodies usually work on the assumption of women's difficulties in
speaking up. That is why such bodies do not wait for a formal complaint
before investigation. More amazing is the commission's quibbling over the
words, molestation and rape. "Possibly rape" can only mean that the commission
has not even tried to investigate the crime, and it is covering up its
inaction with words that trivialize the sufferings of women - some still
in their teens - at the hands of ruthless criminals. Apparently, the women's
commission finds it worth its while to devalue women's sufferings upon
occasion.
Not one principle has survived.
The chairperson, Ms Jasodhara Bagchi, has even said that the commission
will not speak to the media, since the media are politicizing the issue.
Transparency is suddenly a foreign concept, since justice is no longer
the goal. And the politicking villains are of course the media, because
there are still voices there which dare to question the presumably non-politic
silences of august bodies.
