‘Rape for rape’, MeToo war of words, ‘Good Samaritans’ gang-rape woman
The 19 November edition of Note This — our weekly round-up of media reports and opinions on sexual assault
A former major general of the Indian army became the centre of controversy when during a TV panel discussion on Kashmir he endorsed “death for death, rape for rape”. Another controversial figure this week has been music director Anu Malik, who wrote an open letter denying the sexual harassment allegations against him, leading to outrage from singer Sona Mohapatra, one of his most vocal accusers.
Editor’s pick
In her article ‘When gender blinded the media to (an alleged) rape’, NewsTracker’s Simran Singh traces the news coverage of the Pinki Pramanik case and finds “media biases about who can be a victim and who can be an offender”.
Across India: news since last Tuesday
Retired major general SP Sinha has made headlines and been criticised by other army veterans for saying that Kashmiri Muslims deserved “death for death, rape for rape” during a raucous TV panel discussion about attacks on Kashmiri Pandits during the 1990s. Sinha has since acknowledged that his remarks were “unwarranted” and were made while he was “in a disturbed state of mind”. In an interesting analysis published in the Quint, former armyman and current chancellor of Kashmir University Syed Ata Hasnain anaylyses how “loose missiles” on TV “harm the Army” and that “what officers on such panels must demonstrate is the middle path, national interest, sense of history and context, mixed with level-headedness…”
They ‘saved’ her, then gang-raped her
In Noida, Uttar Pradesh, two men “saved” a young woman while she was being sexually assaulted in a park, and then proceeded to call three of their friends to join them in gang-raping her. Two of the suspects are still absconding. The “Noida horror” case has been covered widely in the media and has sparked a social media discussion on rape culture, particularly the role of films in perpetuating it.
Earlier this month, a similar case was reported in Surat, Gujarat. A 13-year-old girl was first sexually assaulted by two teenage boys who had promised to drop her to the railway station. She was then sexually assaulted again by an auto rickshaw driver who instead of taking her to the station took her to his house where he restrained her overnight.
#MeToo
In an open letter, music director and TV host Anu Malik has said that he felt “traumatised” and “suffocated” by the allegations of sexual harassment against him, and that he may soon “knock on the doors of the courts”. However, he has not inspired much sympathy among his several accusers, including singer Sona Mohapatra who wrote on Instagram that the “unverified’ allegations” mentioned by Malik are “multiple testimonies of independent, sane women speaking coherently” and that he should not be “platformed on national TV” until he makes “amends”. Tanushree Dutta, who triggered India’s #MeToo movement with her allegations against actor Nana Patekar, has also weighed in, saying that Malik should be held accountable for his alleged actions.
The Delhi High Court has allowed the Instagram handle herdsceneand, which has been sharing #MeToo stories from the art world, to maintain its anonymity for now in the Subodh Gupta sexual harassment case. The court had earlier directed the handle to stop posting about Gupta.
Abuse of trust
The past few days several widely reported stories have involved sexual assault within families.
In Gurgaon, Haryana, a 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted his 15-year-old cousin (with most news reports focusing on the fact that he “tied her to bed” to do so). The matter came to light when the survivor “fainted in school” and told a teacher about what had happened to her.
In Mumbai, a 21-year-old man raped his 16-year-old sister. According to a Times of India headline, he was held by the police “for making minor sister pregnant”.
In Datia, Madhya Pradesh, four members of a family joined hands to kill a 24-year-old relative who “raped his mother, sister and brother’s wife several times”. The fact that he committed his crimes “in a drunken state” was mentioned several times in an India Today report.
Read more
This roundup is curated from the RSS feeds of more than 30 English news publications from across India.
See the full list of rape and sexual violence cases reported this week and earlier on our web tool, NewsTracker Data. Use our search function or select one of our boards (such as #MeToo, #KeralaPriest, or #PoliticsofRape) to read reports on specific cases and/or themes.
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