Yes, Be Outraged! But Against the Crimes Against Women in India And Not the Video

This problem needs to be squarely talked about, confronted and tackled and not left to occasional bouts of anger and disgust.

Issue 1. Has the Producer and BBC violated any laws and agreements in India?

If this is a yes, as the case is being made out by Government and Jail authorities then they must be prosecuted and the video that came out of this illegality banned for sure, regardless of the merits or demerits of the video and its message. However, our hasty pre-disposition to ban content that is not in agreement with popularly held views, if not illegal, must be resisted. Banning content that does not violate Article 19 of the Constitution, any law, or, in this case, any agreement that BBC had with Tihar authorities should not be a knee-jerk reaction.

Issue 2: On the broader and more important issue of the video, here’s what I think:

All Indians must face up-to to the deep, deeply dysfunctional and very destructive attitude of millions of Indian men towards Indian women and women in General. For a country and culture that venerates it’s women, the attitude of many men in communities around the country towards women range from uncouth to criminal. This problem needs to squarely talked about, confronted and tackled and not left to occasional bouts of anger and disgust and headshaking that we are used to.

This video is provocative in that it interviews the criminal rapist who killed an innocent girl! But his views need to be aired for the country to realise how many men think about women and rape. Every time a rape is committed, there is still the practice of focusing on victims ‘conduct’ and ‘lifestyle’. Let the focus move to the minds of these criminals.

To those outraged about the criminals’ views – it’s right to be outraged and angry. But remember that outrage should not be focused on the video which is the messenger rather on the thousands of outrages that are being inflicted every day on women and children in India. Treat this video as our collective wakeup call and our call to act decisively against this menace within.