New Delhi: India’s central government has passed the ordinance to amend the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill (POSCO), 2012, to allow the death penalty for the rape of children under the age of 12.
However, the POSCO Act is not valid in the state of Jammu and Kashmir where an 8-year-old was recently raped and subsequently killed.
And as of now, the ordinance awaits President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent.
The abduction, rape and murder of the 8-year-old girl, in Rasana village near the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, and the rape of a 17-year-old girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, triggered nationwide outrage and once again brought into focus the safety of minor girls in India.
This drove the government to show urgency in its action.
Meanwhile, the national spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party Meenakshi Lekhi has accused opposition parties of doing “dangerous politics” over these incidents. Addressing the press early this week, Lekhi termed much of the attacks on the BJP government “as a pattern” by the opposition to undermine the Modi government.
“You see their plan, first shout ‘minority, then Dalit Dalit,’ and now ‘women’ and then try to somehow fix blame of state issues on the centre. All this while ignoring the strict action being taken by state governments,” she said.
Lekhi is a Supreme Court lawyer and one of the most prominent faces of the BJP participating in various television shows. She won the high-profile New Delhi parliamentary constituency elections against Congress leader Ajay Maken, in 2014.
She speaks to Gulf News in an exclusive interview:
It appears the government has finally moved to amend the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill, 2012 (Posco) by making provisions for death penalty for rape of minors below the age of 12?
These steps have been in consideration for a very long time and the language of the section, which I had long back suggested, was not just pertaining to young victims of such crimes, but also life-altering events, even in the case of adult women, should be brought in and the penalty must be allowed.
Some people say no girl or woman feels safe in the country right now?
India’s population is 1.3 billion, but when rapes happen an impression is created that all girls and women are not safe in this country. Is that what you are trying to say? And this is what I object to. In this huge population, there will be some individuals who are psychopaths in their conduct and behaviour. But to say that the society is insecure is insane.
A lot of women activists are against death penalty saying it cannot be a deterrent to crime?
I have a question. Which is the country where there’s no rape? Please check the dates of those particular days when crimes have happened in India and the countries you think were secure (on those days).
The entire country is unison in venting their anger over the rapes in Kathua and Unnao by saying ‘enough is enough’. Your comment?
‘Enough is enough’ is for everyone, but there’s politicisation of the issue by certain vested interests. These are heinous crimes, which no one in the country will approve of. But to play politics out of it and create an atmosphere of insecurity is very incorrect. And that’s what is being done.
Media across the spectrum has made scathing remarks over the delay in reaction by the BJP government in these cases.
Which is very sad because the BJP in the (Uttar Pradesh) state acted immediately. It is a state subject and states are supposed to act. When crime happens in the country in one corner or the other corner, the central government should not be expected to deal with them.
Since the Nirbhaya case of 2012, a new law against sexual atrocities against women was enacted under the Indian Penal Code. But media reports say the Nirbhaya Fund has been underutilised.
It (the fund) all goes to the states. The funding has to be spent (by them) in a very sensible way. Since I have no knowledge of this, I would not like to comment on this.
The National Crime Records Bureau recorded 19,675 cases of rape against minors in 2016. How about having fast track courts to address all such cases?
[The figure should be] divided by the 1.3 billion population of the country. As for fast-track courts, everything has to be fast-tracked. But building a hype can also cause injustice in the process, because, at times, when the police is under pressure, investigation can be affected.
There is a mismatch of non-power, of funding, financing and managing the states. So, there has to be a balance. We are a very sane and safe society compared to many other countries.
We are a country of diverse people and I am not saying crimes are not happening. I am not saying there should be leniency towards [people committing] crimes.
There should be absolute strictness about dealing with the perpetrators. But portrayal of the country as unsafe is a wrong message.
I do not want to speak on such subjects because that is below the dignity of the entire country and the men who stand to protect women.
But in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabja, we see male parliamentarians at times passing sexist remarks at their women counterparts?
I don’t know which context you are talking about. Are you trying to draw a co-relation between these things? And is this exclusive to India? These things are condemnable. Who’s appreciating these things? No one. But these things exist in other societies as well. In many societies women like you and me cannot even make phone calls and cannot even take or give interviews. Such things also exist.
What does freedom and feminism mean to you?
It means to do what pleases me and let others do what pleases them — within the social norms of their respective societies.
Do you think the national outcry (over rape) will affect the BJP’s chances of winning the forthcoming Karnataka state elections?
You wait and watch. I shall talk to you post these elections. In Karnataka a similar crime has happened around the same period, which is not being reported. The media is indulging in selective outcry.
