Two men noted for feminist liberal attitudes, in positions of authority, leading organizations with activities and objectives not pleasing several kinds of rogue elements.
Two staunch feminist victims who had unhesitatingly raised their voice against rape and rights of rape victims, with knowledge of law and immediate procedures after rape alleging rape with strong feminist support. After time has passed.
Two rape victim’s allegations against the accused leaked to media. Both heavily promoted by deliberate circulation. One as a series of emails leaked at regular intervals in mainstream media. The other as copies of CD with victim’s testimony.
At least one face was common among core supporters for both strong feminist victims including television appearances – strong, leftist, feminist communist. Prominent politicians weighed in their opinions, including members of the National Commission for Women. There was complete agreement. Guilty! No judge has seen the case yet.
No rape test has been done on the victims. No witnesses to the rape of either except “witnesses” who were informed of what happened by the victim herself.
Media lynchmob ensues with no rebuttal possible against anonymous accusers.
Two liberal feminist men accused of abusing position of authority/control denying accusations. Both silenced by media. Attempts by both to initiate any dialogue rejected. No case filed. Both victims anonymous.
Families of both victims not in the picture except brief mentions of mothers.
All this massive unconditional support did not result in the already strong feminist victims (journalist and activist) feeling empowered enough to file cases (something thousands of women in the country do – often completely on their own and injured).
Two cases brought to justice by media, with loudest voices from channels also accused of other bias against other entities politically opposing a certain party.
Complete consensus across politicians across parties. Guilty! (This needs an award)
Two cases of wrongs against feminist liberal women by feminist liberal men brought to media spotlight by at least one communist representative defended with the full power of BJP’s organized social media.
Two liberal feminist men with strong professional voices were completely discredited professionally.
Two liberal feminist men and their supporters accused of intimidating strong feminist women with an abundance of feminist AND media support with no actual threat described.
One feminist liberal man commits suicide. Second feminist liberal man is in jail. His organization is severely weakened.
Any effort to raise any kinds of questions results in accusations of rape apology. More for the living leftist liberal feminist man than the dead one (suicide blunts much anger). A media that can sensitively report interviews of Delhi rape accused, including life stories and interviews of villagers from their native villages finds no relevance for direct denials of these two rape accused or their supporters – including wives of both “rapists”.
No other cases crawl out of the woodwork alleging similar behavior by either of the two accused feminist liberal men. It seems they got a one off whim to abuse their power and got exposed the very first time within months of each other.
To the best of my knowledge, this pattern has not been seen before or since these two cases.
If this is feminism and empowerment of women, I’ll eat my keyboard.
If this is feminism, the country is better off without it.
If this is a rape apology, then perhaps it takes a rape apology to look around and go “Waitaminit – other than the accused and victims and the supporters of accused (who have very similar socio-political profiles), all the players in both stories look and act identical, the cases happen within weeks of each other – but nothing like this before or since. What the heck is going on here?”
Who all profit? In which ways? Can the victims be considered empowered by this brand of feminism? Can the women of India claim to be helped in any manner with the manner in which these cases were conducted?
This post is a direct response to accusations of me being a rape apologist. Call me what name you like, but explain such an elaborate coincidence. Or was it coincidence? Was it that there were some elements jumping onto a specific kind of opportunity for reasons of their own without regard for collateral damage? Was it that there were several concurrent but separate interests finding opportunity in these two dramatic cases? What the heck happened? Where are the cases now? Where are the victims? Where are the follow up stories other than pre-bail intimidation reports for the feminist liberal man alive?
On a larger scale, do you see massive unconditional endorsement as having made the victim stronger or weaker if they were not able to leverage knowledge they already had and support pouring in to file a case and felt intimidated by any action that seemed to deny or question?