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| Credit: NDTV |
On December 16, 2012, a 23 year old paramedical student was barbarically gang-raped, beaten, and violated with an iron rod by six beasts for over 40 minutes in New Delhi, in a moving bus. She was then brutally thrown out the bus, in partial clothes. Bleeding and unconscious – left to die on the road side.
But the brave one battled for survival against all odds. She kept telling her mom that she wanted to live. She underwent multiple surgeries at Safdarjung hospital in Delhi, including one to remove her severely injured and infected intestine. As her condition worsened, she was airlifted to a Singapore hospital on December 27. Unfortunately, the move did no good. Despite her mental strength, she succumbed to her injuries, on December 29, 13 days after the incident.
Another girl, another fighter, another life gone – gone – hoping the candles with continue to burn till the justice is delivered.
India is outraged at the heinous crime in the heart of Delhi, the power center of the country. People, especially students, are protesting peacefully demanding justice for her while the political class continues to display, shamelessly, its dumbness, insensitivity, and inaction.
On December 16, the victim along with her male friend was returning home after watching a film in Delhi. The duo boarded a Delhi Transport bus. The bus already had 6 occupants – all men and drunk. They started taunting the victim and her friend. When the girl objected, they attacked her – gang-raped and savagely assaulted her with an iron rod – for at least 40 long minutes as the bus continued to cut through Delhi roads freely. When her friend tried to defend her, he too was beaten up with the same iron rod. Both were then thrown out the bus in semi-conscious state and in partial clothes. A passerby alerted the police and the injured were rushed to Safdarjung hospital.
Delhi woke up to the shocking incident. Soon the anger erupted and exploded on the streets of the capital. Men and women, girls and boys, students and professionals took to Delhi streets demanding stricter laws to prevent violence against women, to hold authorities accountable, and to ensure speedy justice in such incidents.
Total inaction from government, and blame game between Delhi police, Delhi government, and Central government only intensified the protests.
On Dec 22, suddenly the protests took a violent turn. As the protesters tried to push through the barricades to move towards Rashtrapati Bhavan, police aimed water cannons at them, fired teargas, and resorted to brutal lathicharge. Some elements among protesters too resorted to violence – hurling stones at police, damaging parked vehicles in the area. Result – About 70 people got injured, some protesters got locked up, and the stir gradually calmed down.
The government and police had almost done it again – silenced the anger with heavy use of force. But on December 27 when the news spread that the condition of the victim had taken turn for worse and that she had been airlifted to Singapore, protesters were back with renewed demand for justice.
In between, political class made mockery of itself by making some derogatory, some utterly dumb comments, and some face saving promises. Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh addressed the nation to appeal for calm but ended up fueling the rage by ending his speech with “theek hai” (is that ok?). It was an apparent attempt to check with the cameramen if he was done and done well demonstrating that the speech wasn’t delivered from heart.
By December 28 evening, it was clear that the girl who had displayed unprecedented mental strength was losing the battle. She had suffered multiple organ failures and doctors were describing her state to be extremely critical. Prayers of billion plus nation had had no positive effect. She passed away at 4:45AM Singapore time on December 29.
Spontaneous protestors gathered at various cities across India, silently holding placards that read – “RIP Braveheart! Your death will not go in vain”.
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