In more ways than one, the Kathua gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomad girl has proved to be an inflection point. It was the second time people across India spoke up in indignation against the brutal violence our girls are subjected to, prey to a perverted mentality where any age is fair game. The Supreme Court’s decision to shift the trial out of Kathua and to reject the demand for a CBI probe has, therefore, already had a salutary effect, even before the daily in-camera trial begins in Pathankot, Punjab.
The manner in which a vilification campaign was launched against the Crime Branch of the J&K Police through WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter to discredit its probe report was unprecedented and as J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti remarked, “dangerous’’.
That there were vested interests at work who wanted to project the findings of the Crime Branch through the prism of religion, region and community was all too apparent. Doubt was cast on the intentions of the same police force on which both the state and central governments rely to fight terrorism in the Valley. A CBI probe was being demanded almost as if a wrong had to be righted, but the bias was transparent and unhealthy. The SC order has thankfully put an end to these myopic designs.
When the Crime Branch was barred from filing the chargesheet by a group of lawyers and the victim’s father pleaded for the case to be shifted out of Kathua, it was virtually sealed. Mehbooba should now desist from any political, constitutional grandstanding on this: her government has been given the right to choose the prosecutor. Instead, she and other players in Kashmir should concentrate on finding a political language that can persuade the youth away from their chimeric cycle of violence that only harms everything, especially a sane future for Kashmir. The Kathua case has shown that it’s the women who can and will rise up to defend themselves and turn the wheels to get justice for themselves. May they also find a way to restore the civilisational stability of a proud culture.
