The Chief Justice of India has brought some clarity to the question of rape and punishment by declaring that a rapist’s offer to marry his victim is no ground to lessen sentences on perpetrators of this gruesome act. While there is widespread national outrage against rape, what is needed most is clarity and strong will by the police and judiciary to act swiftly so that justice is delivered in real time and the message goes out that such crimes will not be tolerated. At such a time, Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh’s observation that people must choose between a “promiscuous culture” that sees nothing wrong in public kissing or a city made safe by “moral policing” complicates the whole question even further. We don’t need the force to do any “moral policing” whatsoever, it should concentrate on its primary duty to make sure the streets and all public spaces are safe for all citizens, particularly the vulnerable sections. The phenomenon of rape, as seen in the Indian context, goes far beyond the effect of a modern environment in which pornography is easily available on the Internet, a certain amount of more open sexual behaviour, as in public displays of affection, are much more common than in an earlier conservative era, and sex education is being imparted at an early age, formally or informally. The bestiality of sexual predators is a primeval instinct, pure and simple, and it must be reined in to make our country safer for women and children.
