Lessons learnt from Hathras mishandling

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Lessons learnt from Hathras mishandling

Sunday, 04 October 2020 | Swapan Dasgupta

It would hardly be unfair to say that there is no Government, however well-intentioned and purposeful, that has the capacity to control and monitor the lives of every citizen or, for that matter, regulate activities in each and every locality. This is as true for Europe and North America, as it is for India.

Arguably, there is technology in existence to warrant a Big Brother state. All over Europe, for example, there are CCTV cameras monitoring motorways, city roads, country lanes and front doors of houses. They are in turn put to different uses, ranging  from controlling traffic flow and speed checks to being a deterrent against crime. Then there are more intrusive monitoring techniques such as phone tapping, monitoring internet usage and even more sophisticated listening and tracking devices. With the rise in international terrorism, most democratic societies have given a carte blanche to the authorities to put technology to full use in thwarting violent subversion that endanger the lives of citizens.

Technology, however, is a double-edge sword. The same means legitimately utilised to fight terror can so easily be used against political opponents or — as happened with the Stasi in erstwhile East Germany — become a ruse for large scale personal surveillance of ordinary citizens. The danger is real and societies all over the world — democratic societies at least — have attempted to strike a balance between national security, law and order and individual privacy. This hasn’t always worked. Rogue elements in police forces, for example, have used technology for political control. This has aroused the ire of civil libertarians, and legitimately so. At the same time, when terrorists do succeed in accomplishing some dastardly act, there is an outcry from both the citizenry and the media over the failure of the authorities to adequately monitor potential subversives.

It is a no-win situation and the state is forever exposed to charges of doing too little or overdoing things.

In India, the spread of technology for the maintenance of public order is still uneven. Given the sheer size of the country and the patchy nature of state capacity, the ability to provide full protection to individuals, not to mention vulnerable communities, is often a case of Ram bharosa. It is customary for Governments to be mercilessly attacked by opponents for failures to prevent a riot, a bomb blast and, as is now evident, rape.

The Hathras rape case that has also assumed the character of a caste war involving upper caste Thakurs and Brahmins on the one hand and Dalits on the other is a typical case.

To begin with, there has to be total agreement on one point. Whatever the circumstances and provocation, it is simply unacceptable for any human being to be subjected to sexual crimes — in this case of a particularly horrible nature. The perpetrators deserve the most stringent punishment the law has to offer, and the sentences awarded to the attackers and killers of ‘Nirbhaya’ in Delhi is a possible model.

Secondly, while it is conceded that the state lacks the capacity to prevent each and every outrage, it has two principal responsibilities: to quickly identify and begin the process of prosecution of the rapists and murderers without any concern for political consequences; and to deal with the social fallout — including the handling of the victims and families — with an extraordinary measure of sensitivity.

The Yogi Adityanath Government of Uttar Pradesh is under attack from both the media and the Opposition parties on this last count. I don’t think anyone believes that a Government alone has the ability to change the mindset that led to the rape in the first place. The inclination to use women’s bodies as the site of power politics is despicable, but countering it needs wider social consciousness in which the state and politicians can play only a small role. A bigger role devolves on bodies, institutions and thought processes that wittingly or otherwise promote the perception that women’s bodies can be violated at will.

However, the State Government is on the backfoot because the manner in which the local administration dealt with the issue suggested a colossal degree of insensitivity. The scant concern paid to the victim’s family was high-handed and often indicated a degree of arrogance that comes with being intoxicated with power. The failure of the local administration to cope with an issue that wasn’t going to be a mere local crime was apparent. Lucknow should either have deployed more experienced hands or transferred the errant officials at the first sign of trouble. It was the delay that compounded the offence.

Admittedly the Opposition parties were fishing in troubled waters and attempting to discover an issue that would well and truly embarrass the Government in Delhi. Their target wasn’t Yogi Adityanath but Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Whether we like it or not, this is a tactic familiar to Indian democracy. It has to be managed with deftness.

Unfortunately, deftness and the ability to take a blow or two was missing in the local Hathras administration. The media in India is by definition both irresponsible and exhibitionist. This was evident in the Sushant Singh case and is evident in Hathras. In the former, the media overdid things and there was a backlash. In Hathras, the media has successfully managed to equate itself as another victim thanks to the over-bearing attitude of the local administration.

The storm will blow over, until the next time. It is time that a few lessons are learnt both regarding the management of crime, the handling of trauma and the limits of political control.

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