[For much of last week,
as some protesters complained that the Indian state was more interested in
protecting itself than its citizens, especially women, the symbolism has been
stark: the authorities invoked emergency policing laws, closing off the
governmental center of the capital, blockading roads and even shutting down
subway stations — a democratic government temporarily encircling itself with a
moat. At one point, fire hoses were turned on college students.]
By Jim Yardley
 |
Anupam
Nath/Associated Press
Students in Guwahati,
India, mourned the death of a rape victim
on Saturday with a silent vigil;
elsewhere, anger seethed.
|
NEW DELHI — India often
seems to careen from crisis to crisis, with protests regularly spilling onto the
streets over the latest outrage or scandal, a nation seemingly always on the
boil. But when things settle, as they inevitably do, little seems to change.
Public anger usually cools to a simmer.
Now, though, the heat
has turned up again, as the death early on Saturday of a young woman savagely assaulted and
raped here in the national capital has mushroomed into a new
and volatile moment of crisis that has touched a deep chord of discontent. Protests that
began more than a week ago as anguished cries against sexual violence in Indian
society have broadened into angry condemnations of a government whose response
has seemed tone deaf and, at times, incompetent.
On Saturday, hours after
the rape victim died at a hospital in Singapore, several thousand people
gathered at Jantar Mantar, the designated protest spot in the center of the
capital, to express their anguish and rage. The latest demonstrations followed
a week that saw the authorities clash with protesters and cordon off the
political center of the city with a huge display of force.
“What the government is
doing is politically stupid,” said Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, speaking during a protest last week. “This will
cause public disaffection, because people are seeing the government as
inflexible and intolerant. If the government listened, they would find that
people are trying to find solutions.
“The problem,” she
added, “is the government is not even listening.”
For much of last week,
as some protesters complained that the Indian state was more interested in
protecting itself than its citizens, especially women, the symbolism has been
stark: the authorities invoked emergency policing laws, closing off the
governmental center of the capital, blockading roads and even shutting down
subway stations — a democratic government temporarily encircling itself with a
moat. At one point, fire hoses were turned on college students.
Those restrictions were
eased by Dec. 25, even as New Delhi remained consumed by an anxious vigil as
the young woman remained in critical condition. Doctors gave daily, televised
updates on her condition until Wednesday evening, when the authorities
unexpectedly flew her by special airplane to a hospital in Singapore, where her
condition deteriorated before she died of organ failure.
It is the graphic horror
of the attack that set off the outrage: the victim was a 23-year-old woman, her
identity still withheld, whose evening at the movies with a male friend on Dec.
16 turned nightmarish. The police say a group of drunken men waved the pair
onto a private bus, promising a ride home, but instead assaulted them with an
iron rod and raped the woman as the bus moved through the city.
College students, mostly
women, led the early protests. Sexual violence has become a national scandal in
India, amid regular reports of gang rapes and other assaults against infants,
teenagers and other women. But women also spoke of a more pervasive form of
harassment: of being groped in public; of fearing to ride buses or subways
alone; of victims, not attackers, being shamed and blamed.
“Rape happens
everywhere,” Urvashi Butalia,
a feminist writer, wrote in The Hindu,
a national English-language newspaper. “It happens inside homes, in families,
in neighborhoods, in police stations, in towns and cities, in villages, and its
incidence increases, as is happening in India, as society goes through change,
as women’s roles begin to change, as economies slow down and the slice of the
pie becomes smaller.”
Analysts say that
India’s coalition national government, led by the Indian National Congress
Party, had an early opportunity to defuse the anger by embracing the protests
and providing comfort and reassurance. Yet that moment, analysts agree, was
missed, as top leaders misjudged how quickly public anger would escalate,
especially among the young. It was a generational divide between young
urbanites, often communicating by social media, and a government unable to find
a way to win public trust.
Reassurances offered by
Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress Party, came off as unconvincing. Her
son Rahul Gandhi, the party’s heir apparent, has barely been visible.
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh first attempted to calm the situation last Monday with a taped national
address, but his speech was overshadowed by a stray remark. At the end of the
taping, Mr. Singh, speaking in Hindi, asked “Theek hai?” meaning “Is it all
right?”
It was most likely an
innocuous comment to the cameraman that ordinarily would have been edited out.
But it quickly went viral and became a bitter rallying cry on social media.
That was followed by a sexist comment about female protesters by a member of
Parliament, who also happened to be the son of India’s president.
When the protests grew
angrier and more violent, especially as men joined the ranks, many reportedly
allied with rival political parties, the police responded with fire hoses, tear
gas and nightsticks. Then the authorities invoked the emergency policing law,
known as Section 144, to lock down the area around the presidential palace,
Parliament and the main government offices.
But if the government’s
heavy-handed response met with broad criticism, the hard line taken by some
protesters also raised concerns. Frustrated, many protesters called for the
death penalty against convicted rapists, alarming many people in a country
where executions are extremely rare.
Then a police constable
died of a heart attack during the protests. The authorities say he had a
seizure after being attacked by protesters — a claim denied by some witnesses.
“Collectively, we seem
to have unthinkingly bought into a narrative of empowered indignation in which
‘anger’ against ‘authority’ is deemed to be just and justifiable and any means
to vent that ‘anger’ is rationalized as socially acceptable and politically
correct,” Harish Khare, a former spokesman for the prime minister, wrote in The Hindu.
The constable’s death
seemed to shift the tenor of the public mood, and Mr. Singh made another speech
calling for calm and promising action. “The emergence of women in public
spaces, which is an absolutely essential part of social emancipation, is accompanied
by growing threats to their safety and security,” he said. “We must reflect on
this problem, which occurs in all states and regions of our country, and which
requires greater attention.”
On Saturday morning,
many of the people gathered at Jantar Mantar, shouting “We want justice,” were
determined that the protests should remain peaceful. Neha Sharma, 24, a student
at Delhi University, said capital punishment was not the solution but that
reforms were needed in the criminal justice system. “We need to fix the
system,” she said. “Neither the government nor the police are taking any
steps.”
Protesters have
repeatedly called for reforms, citing the frequent insensitivity of the police
and the courts toward women and the skewed priorities of a government that
devotes thousands of officers to protecting politicians and other so-called
V.V.I.P.’s, even as departments too often fail to protect ordinary citizens.
“I’m now beginning to feel that my government is not capable of understanding
the situation, let alone solving it,” said Abhijit Sarkar, 28, a social
activist who participated in a candlelight vigil last week. “During the
candlelight vigil, policemen were actually laughing at us.”
Niharika Mandhana and Sruthi Gottipati
contributed reporting.