Want to know the latest on the women safety issue that all our political parties have been using to get themselves elected? I guess you do so here it is from the horse’s mouth: a chief minister of a state where the situation of women is abysmal and shameful has cut the Budget of the state women’s commission but has the money for two seven-seater Mercedes cars and two Land Cruisers! This is the state where rapes are called ‘mistakes’! And the closing lines of the article left me speechless: According to statistics, five rapes occurred every day in the state, but most officials prefer to call such heinous crimes “routine” and “unavoidable”. So we have a new lexicon: rapes are mistakes, routine and unavoidable. How can any woman feel safe in this country. This is just the latest episode.

We all remember the ‘dented and painted’ ladies that a senior politician called women protesting against rape; or how we incite rape because of what we do, wear, drink etc or the places we chose to go to. Enough of that nonsense. Anyway when you are a 2 year old or a 81 year old as was recently the case I do not think what you wear, eat, drink matters at all. If you have a vagina, you can be raped.

This morning I was shocked to read about a 6 year old being assaulted within her school in Bangalore. What really made me fall off my chair was when I read that Bangalore school says it not responsible for children’s safety. What the hell. Parents send their children to school because they feel that the children are safe within the school. The school is an up market franchise sort of thing, something I gall at, and the child was assaulted by the fitness instructor and another man in the school’s gym on TWO DIFFERENT DAYS. Another school Director states: that although the school has more than 60 CCTV cameras installed in its premises, such incidents are inevitably bound to occur on campus. And he goes on to add: Nobody knows the minds and the intentions of offenders who harm and assault the children. The school managements in most cases are not able to identify predators who are potential offenders. The government should draft stringent punishment against such offences and create a fear psychosis amongst offenders. Only harsh punishment can prevent such incidents to an extent in school premises. Wow. I am floored. So we as parents or guardians should accept the fact that our child could be molested, raped etc in the school to which we pay hefty bounties till the state creates a fear psychosis in potential rapists. How the hell does that work. And I left the best for the end the management spokesperson tells the agitated parents: if somebody is found guilty of raping, let him be hanged.  I would like to ask this man how he would feel if the little girl was his daughter or granddaughter.

There is something terrible wrong and it is time we addressed the problem and stopped circumventing the issues and procrastinating.

Today’s news: a nine year old was raped by her neighbour in Badaun, the same place where two cousins were allegedly raped and hung on a tree. It is in the state where Mercedes cars are more important than a woman’s safety. And in that very state a woman was tortured,  and murdered and her body found in a school building. These are the repass our politicians call routine, unavoidable and mistakes. What else can I say.

Enough is enough. We are sick and third of the outrageous comments from our so called ‘leaders’ to justify rape. Boys will be boys, they makes mistakes  says one of them. This one even shocked the United Nations Chief! So Sir, boys will be boys and make the mistake of raping a girl and girls will be there so that they boys make mistakes! Oops and I forget what he also said was and I quote: First girls develop friendship with boys. They when differences occur, they level rape charges. Boys commit mistakes. Will they be hanged for rape. I wonder how the two young girls who were raped and hung ALIVE, developed friendship on their way to the fields and then ‘levelled’ rape charges.

There is more. When asked about the law and order situation in his state, the boys will be boys man snubbed the media and said that those worried about the law and order situation in UP should stay in Delhi ! It all sounds so much like the Red Queen and her off with their heads!

The next ‘excuse’ or ‘justification’ proffered is another startler! It is a another case of shoot the messenger. Blame the media who is not highlighting rapes in other states. Quite frankly one rape is one too many. And the clarify matters rapes are reported from others states too.

I was also appalled and taken aback by the meek reaction of a woman MP who happens to be related to the boys will be boys guy. She says: This is a very important social issue facing the country. It is very sensitive. I think we should take it up with all seriousness and deliberate over it. OK Ma’am. But please let us note how many more rapes, gang rapes, rapes of elder women, rapes of babies and toddlers will it take for us to ‘deliberate‘ over this ‘sensitive’ issue. Come on, it is women we are talking about, young girls who could be our daughters. Oops made another boo boo. Only ‘certain’ people belonging to ‘certain’ social sections are victims. Guess what that makes of the other sections. Does that give you a sense of safety. Believe me there will be a time when the floodgates will break and hell will freeze over as Shylock asks for his pound of flesh.

Another politician goes even further when he states that these incidents cannot be prevented.

I guess you get the picture. We can not hope for any solution. All such insensitive remarks do is provide meat for heated debates and then are forgotten while every 20 minutes a woman is RAPED. This does not change.

And to assuage the politician who felt that only rapes in his state were reported, a mentally challenged girl was raped in Tamilnadu, a woman was raped in Bangalore, two girls were raped in Delhi, and all this news my dear Sir is courtesy the media you blame.

In the midst of all this we have another politician who candidly states that nobody commits rape deliberately but rapes are committed by deceit. This is a first for me and something I cannot even begin to fathom. He goes on to say No culprit is going to inform us and then commit rape. If that was the case we could have caught them easily. It is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Till the time rape is not reported we cannot act on it. So what would Akhilesh and Mulayam do to prevent it. So if my befuddled mind understands his line of thought a rapist should inform before he rapes so that he can be caught. I am speechless.

As if that was not enough, in the case of the two girls who were raped and hung on a mango tree, the Police Chief of the State sprung a surprise when he stated that one of the girls may not have been raped and thus the ones caught may be innocent! He wanted one and all to believe that this was a case of family feud or honour killing. Whose honour is it anyway!

Curiouser and Curiouser.

The media is replete of ‘stories’ about the Badaun case. The family is demanding a CBI investigation as they do not have faith in the local state police. Do not blame them at all. And lest one forget a SIT (Special Investigation Team) was constituted and I guess there will be more Committees as that is often the easy way out. They take time and memory being short the incident is forgotten or overtaken by something more horrific. I really wonder whether the guilty will get punished. The culprits of the gruesome Delhi rape are still lots in the labyrinth of our judicial system.

Let us see if the new dispensation at the Centre intervenes as they have pledged a “zero-tolerance” approach and to strengthen the overloaded criminal justice system regarded as inefficient and inept. We can just wait and see.