India’s home minister promised Parliament that he would
thoroughly investigate how a BBC filmmaker got permission and access to
interview a convicted and condemned rapist to speak in front of the camera. It
was followed by the Government of India securing an injunction to prevent
broadcast of the film “India’s Daughter”. It amounted to hunting the
hunted. How else can we fathom the Home
Minister’s slanted worldview against a powerful filmmaker but pusillanimous
against feudal sounding legal officers who do not bat an eyelid in advocating
nauseating patriarchy against women?
The Indian Nation is agog with the debate about airing a
documentary in which the psychopath who abetted the gang rape of 16th
December 2012 has been interviewed… naturally Women’s activists and the Nation
at large are offended that a sound byte can be lent to one of the convicted
rapists who is facing the gallows. Television channels are airing discussions
about the safety of women, the need to change mind-sets, about women being
individuals and humans first, women next.
There are other discussions of patriarchy, female infanticide, dowry,
objectification of women, lack of equal opportunities and a whole lot of issues
are being discussed.
At the core of the issue in India today it seems is the
sensitivity or lack thereof of a British filmmaker giving air time to a
convicted rapist who scandalously remains remorseless.
A few years ago after the death penalty meted out to the convicted
Mumbai terrorist Mohammed Amir Ajmal Kasab I had blogged against death penalty
(http://www.upiasia.com/Blogosphere/Malini/20081217/capital_punishment_is_an_emotional_reaction/) which was expectedly derided and I
was accused of supporting a traitor. Another piece on the same topic I wrote
can be found on http://www.ips.org/blog/ips/has-india-won-anything-by-hanging-mumbai-mass-murderer/
I had argued that death penalty makes martyrs of ingratiated
fundamentalists like Islamist terrorists. … that it would be better to sentence
such convicts for life imprisonment and
that it is essential to understand the psychology of death row convicts if only
to figure if they regret having perpetrated the crime. It will also help us
understand circumstances that drove these misguided elements to their misguided
deeds; maybe we can the n rectify such a world order? In the case of Kasab and
also Afzal Guru, in the last day of their lives, they realised that they had
committed a wrong: - Unlike a serial rapist Dhananjoy Chatterjee the misguided
terrorists did regret their folly.
I felt then and still feel that the greatest punishment would
be to suspend their sentence pending final judgment and leave them at the mercy
of the courts for the rest of their lives in imprisonment or solitary
confinement. Assess their psychology every few weeks. The anxiety alone is a
great deterrence and effective punishment, less cruel than the gallows but punitive
nonetheless. It also affords an opportunity for reform.
But atleast in the trial of Kasab, there was an attempt to
document the psychology of the terrorists. It is essential to document the
thinking of convicted criminals especially those who face the gallows. The
intent would be to investigate if they have remorse for their misdeeds at all
or if there is hope for reform. That would be a very effective deterrence.
In the instant case of interviewing Nirbhaya’s rapists
convicted and destined to the gallows, airing the documentary by all TV
channels in the world with a solemn pledge not to market it with advertising
revenues will have the desired impact; but the channels must desist promoting
the film with snippets of the rapist’s sound-byte / visuals in the promo… for
that amounts to sensationalising it. The purpose of interviewing one of the
convicted rapists is to put psychological pressure and stigma… to shame them.
It’s a very powerful tool for changing mind-sets.
The Indian Home Minister whose party has one of the largest
majorities in Parliament feels threatened by a freelance filmmaker; he announced
in Parliament Wednesday that he has taken the issue of the filmmaker being
permitted to film a convicted rapist inside the Tihar Jail very seriously. It would
be a shame if the Modi government gags freedom of expression, and stifle Media
freedom. The Indian government is clueless as to how articulately Media
professionals can word their synopsis / permission letters and seek permits to
film convicts in as sensitive a case as the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts.
Here’s sincerely hoping that some-day some ‘very professional
and talented filmmaker’ from Europe or America will not come down to deal with
the case with sensitivity and end up reconstructing the ghastly episode for his
/ her film. The governments do not know how to investigate the intent of the
filmmaker. It is a thin line for both the media and the government between
freedom of speech and responsible articulation of thought.
Malini Shankar
Malini Shankar is a photojournalist radio broadcaster and
documentary filmmaker based in Bangalore, India.
