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Shout then & there, or you will be
left holding a candle
Sach Kanwal
Singh
 Nineteen
years ago, popular cultural iconography for a 14-year-old budding
tennis player girl was a poster of Monica Seles-Steffi Graf, and
Ruchika Girhotra was no different. With her friend Aradhna, she was
always dot on time at the courts. Lurking nearby was Haryana Lawn
Tennis Association president SPS Rathore, an IPS officer with lust
in his eyes and sin on his mind. One day he grabbed and pawed
Ruchika, and she barely managed to escape. Aradhna witnessed the
incident. A complaint to the police brought untold miseries.
From then on,
Ruchika's troubles started. Her brother was implicated in false
cases, held in illegal detention, tortured, paraded with handcuffs.
Her father was made to lose his job. She herself was expelled from
the school where she had studied for nearly 11 years. The entire
middle class PLUs, People Like Us, simply retreated into the comfort
of three monkey posture, refusing to see evil being done, refusing
to shout against the aggressor and refusing to lend an ear to the
victims.
On December 28
sixteen years ago, Ruchika could take it no more. She inferred that
all the trouble that her family was going through was because of
her. She sipped poison and died the next day. It was only then that
Rathore ordered release of her brother.
For 19 long and
dark years, Ruchika's father and her friend Aradhna, alongwith
Aradhna's father and mother Anand Prakash and Madhu Prakash, fought
a hard, lonely, almost always frustrating legal battle. Earlier this
week, a court pronounced the verdict: Six months jail to SPS Rathore
and a fine of Rs 1,000.
Molesting and
virtually murdering a 14-year-old, and just six months and Rs 1,000?
As a sense of
outrage finally spilled over and splashed all over the Indian media,
polity and social space, the Indian justice dispensing system has
again been exposed as hollow and designed to save the guilty if they
are rich, powerful, influential and belong to the ruling classes.
The Sikh Nation
joins the fight for justice, and gives a clarion call to take a vow
that no more shall you remain silent when injustice happens, when
innocent victims fight the grueling legal battles alone. Ruchika
would have been 34 today. She had promise.
So had many many
of the daughters and sons who were killed on the roads of Delhi in
1984, burnt to death. The many who survived but were deprived of the
care and nurturing of their parents who had been killed were also
victims. The young men and women being tortured in India's police
stations with impunity granted by the state are all Ruchikas.
 The sons and
daughters of tribals fighting for survival and readying themselves
for sacrifice in a doomed battle against corporate, rich India's
army and paramilitary in a belt called Red Corridor are all Ruchikas.
They are being wronged, and the rest of India is largely silent.
The men and
women from Muslim community who have to mask their identities and
names and adopt Hindu names to get a room on rent are all our
Ruchikas. Please speak out for them. The daughters of Kashmir, the
young women of Manipur who are assaulted and victimized under the
garb of Armed Forces Special Powers Act are all Ruchikas. The
Manorama Mothers are all our Ruchikas.
We have lost
many Ruchikas in the streets of Trilokpuri. And Widows Colony of
Delhi is a monument to all the young girls that
India
forces to become Ruchikas. Stand up and be counted. It is heartening
to note that many in India stood up, even though after 19 years, to
make the fight for justice for Ruchika their own fight, the fight of
the people. The Ruchikas of 1984 have waited for 25 years. They too
deserve your voice.
Vow begone the
civil society if it lets a Ruchika alone. Every time a young girl is
teased, every time a molester eyes a woman, every time a corrupt
police officer lusts after a helpless victim, think of Ruchika, and
speak up. Then and there. A candle lit for Ruchika after 19 years
gives us comfort. A shout for her right then and there will keep
Ruchika alive. Fight to keep Ruchikas alive, do not wait for candle
times.
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Now, it is Rathore's turn to
run for bail
PANCHKULA:
Facing the possibility of imminent arrest, former Haryana top
cop SPS Rathore, convicted for molesting teenager Ruchika
Girhotra, on Wednesday came out of home for the first time after
public outrage over the case.
Carrying a file
in his hands, Rathore reached the Panchkula court flanked by his
wife, who is also his lawyer. With two fresh FIRs (First
Information Report) registered against him, including for
attempt to murder and wrongful confinement, he is expected to
seek anticipatory bail.
In contrast to
his image on the day of conviction last week, when he walked out
on bail smiling, Rathore kept a straight face and avoided
answering the barrage of questions thrown at him and his wife by
waiting reporters. They just kept a straight face.
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30
December 2009
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