If it was outside, in a ‘categorised’ public domain, media would have taken it with all open heart. However, the matter was rather an insider and ‘they’ wished it should remain in the fog. JNU rape case, as most of you might have known by now, is slowly creeping the talks of people in the country. A girl, student at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, who is also an African national, has claimed that her classmate, 23, has raped her while she was unconscious.
The incident took place in December 2015. In a party organised at Lohit hostel of JNU (the accused’s hostel), the African girl was also invited. She was forced to consume alcohol by him, in spite of her refusal. She was not accustomed to alcohol and went unconscious. When she gained her conscience, she had already been sexually assaulted by this JNU student.
The surprising factor is that the JNU internal committee, which was initially probing the case after the victim’s complaint, took four months to realize that it was actually a rape! It was only on 19th of this month that an FIR under section 376 has been lodged in the police station and the accused has been sent to Tihar.
For those of you who have forgotten what JNU is all about – it’s a campus where dissent is celebrated! This way of celebrating the dissent by forcing a 30 years old girl to consume alcohol against her wish is remarkable! After all, this is the place where people have complete freedom of thinking. I didn’t realize that this freedom of ‘free thinking’ has extrapolated itself to be the freedom of free action. You can organise parties at the hostel (good); you can consume alcohol during the parties (good, freedom of choice); you can force others to do so (is it good?); you can rape a girl when she is unconscious (now you decide). Is this what the intellectuals at JNU say the culture of free thinking? Accepted that you can go ahead and assault the conventional ways of Hinduism by naming Devi Durga as a ‘prostitute hired to deviate Mahishasur,’ but the university administration must ensure at least the safety of women at the campus. This rape case at JNU is not at all acceptable!
