By the people, of the people and against the people?
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| Slutwalk organizers hold a "Freeze Mob" outside Garuda Mall on Mysore Road, Bangalore, on Saturday as a means to raise awareness.Photo - Bhanu G. |
By Desiree Alemao
BANGALORE (Dec. 8)—On Jan. 26, 1950, the Constitution of India was handed over to us, a supreme law that promised to care for us, guaranteed us rights and made us believe we could stand up with our heads held high. Once again there was hope—hope that our democracy would flourish and give us a chance at a fresh start.
Fast forward to Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, after the permission to hold a Slutwalk, an international event to empower women, was revoked by the commissioner of police late the previous night. Organizers had gathered at the designated spot to send back any people who turned up.
Organizers arrested after event threatened
The 50 police officers present at the venue decided that it was necessary to take the 10 organizers and protesters present into “preventive custody.”
According to the authorities, certain right-wing groups made it known to the director general of police that they could not let a thing named Slutwalk ever take place and would do whatever it took to stop it from happening.
If I am not mistaken it is usually the people that issue the threats that are taken into custody and not the other way around. So where did our rights go? Where was the protection we are guaranteed? Is there any reason that the police still refuse to name the people from the parties that issued the threats?
India ranks fourth in the list of most dangerous places for women to live, so it is imperative that our society tries to change
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| Slutwalk, which has been conducted in cities across the world, is a means to promote female empowerment.Photo - Bhanu G. |
the way we view and treat women. A truly democratic nation should have no problem with a walk whose purpose is creating awareness about the fact that it is the criminal that needs to be punished and not the victim, which is often the case in our society and was the case with Slutwalk Bangalore.
Sunil Kumar, director general of police, told organizers that the police had received phone calls from various right-wing groups and therefore couldn’t let the walk take place, nor could they reveal the names of these groups.
No action against threat makers
As of now no action has been taken against these people, yet action has been taken against the Slutwalk group who should, in this situation, have been treated as the victims.
So it boils down to how much of a democracy we actually are anymore. In an age when the government dictates the number of text messages we may send and is trying to monitor the content we post on our social networks as well, our right to peacefully assemble ceases to exist. The government that is supposed to be by the people, of the people and for the people now seems to have changed into one that is against the people.
According to Vikram, one of the organizers of Slutwalk Bangalore, it’s not just the responsibility of the government to make sure that India survives as the largest democracy. He believes that the onus is on the people to be more proactive and more involved. That’s what the movement was trying to achieve, a more participative and aware society.
We can’t be discouraged by any single instance or situation and in doing so let the oppressing parties gain more power. If we do that, then in the next 10 years India won’t be the largest democracy in the world, it’ll be just a semblance of one.
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