A controversy cropped up about the volume of semen found in her body. I almost puked seeing the smirk on the face of the man defending the ruling dispensation in a television discussion late evening one day. His was a wicked smile of a self-proclaimed winner who had punched a “big” hole in the narrative of the “opposition” by taking the discussion on the brutal rape and murder of the post-graduate trainee doctor in R. G. Kar Hospital in Kolkata to a “sublime” level of 151 mg versus 151 ml.
My God died that day. Coming from a person with nearly sixty-three summers behind him, this may sound juvenile but that’s precisely what happened. In fact, my God has been unwell for decades. Not because of rapes, molestations, murders, riots, frauds, corruption, competitive religionism, in-your-face political patronages, terrorism, political violence etc. which have been staring at me askance. He has been in ill-health seeing the way the politicians and their apologists brazenly defended or trivialized crimes.
The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (now deceased) could explain away an incident of rape by saying “Boys will be boys; they make mistakes at times”. A former Speaker of the Karnataka assembly could draw guffaws from the fellow law-makers whilst suggesting “when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it”. Former Chief Minister of Haryana once shared his pearls of wisdom by suggesting that “Boys and girls should marry early to curb rape incidents”. A former actor and politician from West Bengal went un-retributed when he threatened people saying “I will send my boys and they will rape people”. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh once morbidly described rape as “a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong”. The Chief Minister of West Bengal remorselessly appealed to the doctors protesting against the brutal rape and murder of a colleague to “return to the Pujo festivities”.
India got rid of the British, the French and the Portuguese but created another set of masters i.e., the politicians who have built and curated a political eco-system that has neutered the citizenry for all practical purposes. If, as an exception, the heat continues on these politicians, they unabashedly take refuge in whataboutery. A rape in the East is explained away by another one in the North. A murder in the West cannot be protested against for the reason that there was a similar one in the South.
As Kahlil Gibran said “Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth”. Paradoxically, here “a” truth is “the” truth. The truth is that we elected them for a host of reasons other than governance and, therefore, we are in no position to fret & fume at sodomization of citizenry by these politicians. Their empathisers from Sodom and Gomorrah shall unfailingly appear on the prime-time television to their defence.
The politicians know that this too shall pass. Their apologists know that the volume of semen shall help their masters tide over crises.