to inform the high command of my decision to step down,
Delhi, and India, was shaken to its core on December 16,- Twenty-three-year-old Nirbhaya, who was studying
physiotherapy, was gang-raped and tortured by six men in a
private bus that she had boarded with her friend, who too
was beaten up mercilessly. Thrown out of the bus, they lay
on the road when some good samaritans came across them
and took them to Safdarjung Hospital.
At a time when India was witnessing a rising graph of
violent crimes against women, this one pierced the heart. A
young educated girl from a modest background, standing at
the threshold of a life she had made for herself, her only
crime had been her self-confidence. I immediately called up
senior officials in the Delhi government as well as police
officers to get a sense of the situation.
While people of all ages took to the streets and held candlelight
vigils, anger and anguish palpable in their eyes, our government
appeared non-responsive. Even as
I quietly reached out to Nirbhaya’s
family, to extend them every
possible help, my statement that
law and order did not fall within
our government’s jurisdiction was
viewed as being an insensitive
attempt at passing the buck.
Nevertheless, it was not so. I too
was a woman—moreover, a
mother and a grandmother. In the
last decade or so, the growing
confidence of the young girls and
women of my city had been my
source of delight. It sickened me as
a long-time resident of Delhi to see
this face of the city.
I knew that the people who came
to my house did so because they saw me as the face of Delhi.
What should have been a moment for me to take charge of the
situation was reduced to a moment of extreme frustration for
the simple reason that law and order in Delhi was the Centre’s
responsibility. Had the Union home ministry responded with
urgency and addressed the Delhi Police, the people would have
realised whose call it was to initiate action and would have seen
the concern expressed by the government. The Centre’s unre-
sponsive stance immediately after the incident seemed delib-
erate as it shifted the focus entirely on the Delhi government.
I
respected the anger of the people for I knew where it was
coming from. As a woman, the CM and a Cong ress woman, I
decided to go to Jantar Mantar and show my solidarity with
the people who had gathered there, even though my officials
had warned me that I might not be welcome. When I reached
Jantar Mantar, I sensed some resistance to my presence, but
no one abused me or tried to block my passage as I lit a candle
for Nirbhaya. Sandeep’s car, however, was pelted with stones
when he attempted to join the protest at India Gate.
I also met Nirbhaya’s friend. Hearing his account further fir-
med my resolve to help Nirbhaya and her family. I personally
monitored her situation every day, and our government arr-
anged for her transfer to a hospital in Singapore. I app roached
the Union home minister and set up a meeting with the ChiefJustice of the Delhi High Court to initiate fast-track courts.
On December 29, Nirbhaya lost the battle for her life. For the
family, the loss of a dear one is irreparable. Our government
extended its sympathy in the way it could, by providing finan-
cial support and helping her brother realise his ambition to be
a pilot. I continue to be in touch with them. By January 2013,
the Justice Verma Committee, which had been tasked with
recommending amendments to the criminal law to ensure
speedier trial and enhanced punishment in cases of sexual
assaults against women, had submitted its report to the cen-
tral government. The preface of the report stated, “Failure of
good governance is the obvious root cause for the current
unsafe environment eroding the rule of law.” It also mentioned
an urgent need for police reforms as well as an attitudinal
change in society “to correct the aberration of gender bias”.
By mid-March, both houses of Parliament had passed the
Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013. On April 2, 2013,
President Pranab Mukherjee
gave his consent to the bill, and
the Criminal Law (Amendment)
Act, 2013, came into force.
It occurred to me that the grow-
ing violence, including sexual
crimes, against women was taking
place at a time when more and
more of them were stepping out
of their homes to pursue an edu-
cation or a career, and were not
lacking in self-confidence.
Moreover, the resurgence of
patriarchal institutions like khap
panchayats and growing instan-
ces of moral policing, signalled
tough times ahead for women.
The sheer randomness of the
crime against Nirbhaya smote the hearts of the old and the
young, men and women, across cities, because she could have
been anybody’s sister, daughter, granddaughter or girlfriend.
As newspapers and television channels show day after day,
sexual crimes have not stopped, either in cities or in rural
areas. Many do not even come to our notice.
At that juncture, like many other issues, this tragedy, too, was
politicised for leverage and many a tear was shed over the
plight of women. This empathy for women, however, has never
found a corresponding echo in political parties when it comes
to women’s underrepresentation in Parliament. Whenever I
raised the matter of having a larger number of women as poll
candidates, the discussions would invariably peter out. It was
the same story in other parties as well. The ‘winnability’ factor
was always forwarded as being the sole reason why women’s
representation in Parliament was less than adequate.
After the Nirbhaya incident, I was in a bind. My family, which
had seen my distress throughout that period, urged me to step
down as planned earlier, but I felt such a move would be seen
as running away from the battlefield. The Centre had not
wanted the blame to fall on it directly; and I, knowing well that
our government would be blamed by the Opposition, decided
to take it on the chin. Someone had to take the blame.^ O
(Extracted from Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life
by Sheila Dikshit, with permission from Bloomsbury India)HARD TIMES The Nirbhaya protests in Delhi5 August 2019 OUTLOOK 53
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