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Hysterical celebrations over the death sentence are worrying
There is simply too much free-floating anger right now in India and this fundamentally unguided rage that is quietly on the prowl should worry us
The death sentences awarded to the four men convicted of the gang-rape and murder of the young woman in Delhi on the night of December 16 would not have come as much of a surprise to anyone. Rarely has a crime caused such mass outrage in the country; rarely have so many common citizens taken to the streets to express their anger, braving police lathi charges, tear gas shells and water cannons. The crime led to a much larger debate on the status and safety of women in our society, the shortcomings in our policing system, and even whether juvenile criminals should receive the same punishment as adults in case of particularly serious crimes. The Prime Minister had to appear on TV to address the nation, and a law was amended and passed through Parliament with unusual rapidity.
add_main_imageThe fates of these four men were sealed the moment the shock and loathing of the nation spilled out into every available public space. A fifth accused was found hanging in his cell in Tihar jail. The official verdict was suicide, but he may well have been murdered by enraged fellow-inmates. When the sixth culprit, a juvenile, was sentenced to three years in a special home—the maximum allowable under the juvenile justice system, there was widespread anger that he would be out, free, in 27 months time.
While capital punishment abolitionists argued against the four men being sent off to be hanged by the neck till death, they appeared to find little support among the general public. It is well-known that there is little evidence that capital punishment deters crimes of similar nature. But our laws allow death sentences in “the rarest of rare cases”. It is up to the judge to interpret “rarest of rare”. Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna had no doubts on this score. In his verdict, he wrote: “To show mercy in such a heinous crime…would be a travesty of justice.” NextMAds
Policemen and doctors familiar with the case have unanimously confessed that they had never in their lives seen a case of rape and sexual mutilation so brutal and so inhuman. Under the laws of the land, perhaps these sick sadists got what was their due. Yet, why I am I disturbed?
I am disturbed by the scenes of jubilation outside the court when the verdict became public. A bloodthirsty crowd had waited outside the gates of Delhi’s Saket court for days, eager to hear that the convicts would get the death sentence. When the news came, it was celebration time. People shouted and laughed in joy, as if it was a festival or India had just won the World Cup. The mob seemed to go through some form of extreme catharsis. It was a terrible thing to watch, so many men and women in utter ecstasy because four men were set to die.
I can understand it when the victim’s family expresses happiness over the judgement and cry tears of joy—it is some sort of closure (full closure will perhaps never be possible, one can only pray that it comes one day) on a soul-sickening tragedy. But the people going into paroxysms on the street outside, eyes bloodshot, screaming into TV cameras? It was, quite simply, lynch mob behavior come proudly out into the open. And a lynch mob is a lynch mob, whatever the cause that is fueling its rage. In fact, if the judge had awarded life imprisonment instead of death, there would surely have been a riot right there and then. The police would have been attacked, and the judge and the defence lawyers would have needed heavy protection to leave the court area.
These four men committed a crime that defies all adjectives, and fully deserve to be punished as our laws seem fit. But the wild exultation over their death sentences was an ugly and scary sight. And how many of these men, lusting for the blood of these rapists, would have gone back home and treated their wives and sisters—and the women they would pass on the street or stand next to in a bus on their way back—as equals? How many of them have the brains to doubt the basic patriarchal assumptions that underpin our society?
The fact is that there is simply too much free-floating anger right now in India. An inchoate fury hunting for a target, a goal, out to avenge slights it cannot articulate, vent frustrations it cannot fully comprehend. For a few days, that fury found a just cause at Delhi’s Saket court, and the mob went away sated. But that fury will be back again, at the slightest pretext, its random bloodlust as strong as ever. There is certainly no reason to celebrate these four death sentences, and it is definitely this fundamentally unguided rage that is quietly on the prowl all around that should worry us. India is sitting on a powder keg.
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First Published:14 Sep 2013, 02:15 PM IST
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