India on Saturday mourned the death of the 23-year-old Delhi girl who was brutally gang-raped and assaulted with an iron rod by six men aboard a moving bus in the national capital on December 16.
The young paramedical student died at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital at 2:15am on Saturday and a jittery Delhi Police, eager to ensure that anti-rape protesters did not catch them by surprise, stepped up security and locked down sensitive areas of the national capital.
A large number of people mourned in silence the death of the 23-year-old and demanded stringent punishment for the culprits. People started gathering at Jantar Mantar at around 10am and sat in silence.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vish also joined the protest along with their supporters, with a black cloth tied around their mouths. AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Her death is a matter of shame and sorrow for all of us. Let’s resolve that we will not let her death go in vain. Aren’t we all responsible for her death? Can we all now do something so that half of humanity starts feeling safe amongst us?”
The mourners protested against the security lockdown of India Gate and Raisina Hill where violent demonstrations were witnessed last weekend over the rape.
“The government is not even allowing us to mourn her death. This is insensitivity. There is complete lock down. The metro station is shut, the roads completely blocked. This is undemocratic,” a protester Sunil said.
Manish Sisodia said the government was muzzling the voice of people by shutting the metro and closing down India Gate.
“This is a moment of national grief. This is also a moment of national shame. We, as a nation, have failed to provide conditions in which women can lead a normal life without being subjected to indignities. We, as a society, have failed to evolve a culture of respect and equality for women,” the AAP said in a statement.
“This event and the subsequent developments have no doubt generated widespread outrage and justified anger. But today we must convert this into a positive resolve. Let us all resolve that we shall convert this moment into a movement to end all forms of violence against women. Let ‘No Violence Against Women’ be our national new year’s resolution,” it said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led appeals for calm.
Protesters who gathered at the Jantar Mantar thoroughfare in central Delhi said the unnamed student’s death was a wake-up call for a country in denial about the levels of violence that women faced.
Some of the protesters, who gathered in outlying areas of the capital, carried banners that read “Hang the Rapist”.
Though the six men already been arrested have yet to be formally charged, they are now the subject of a murder investigation.
“We have booked all the six accused under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. It is a non-bailable offence which carries the death sentence,” police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said. Formal charges are expected to be filed by January 3.
“For some reason, and I don’t really know why, she got through to us,” well-known columnist Nilanjana Roy wrote in a blog on Saturday.
Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the ruling Congress party, directly addressed the protesters in a rare broadcast on state television, saying as a mother and a woman, she understood their grievances.
“Your voice has been heard,” Gandhi said. “It deepens our determination to battle the pervasive and the shameful social attitudes that allow men to rape and molest women with such impunity.”
Shah Rukh Khan, the famous actor in Bollywood, tweeted that the victim had forced India to confront a shameful reality. “We couldn’t save u but wat a big voice u have … That voice is telling us that rape is not an aberration, not a mistake,” he wrote. “Rape embodies sexuality as our culture & society has defined it. I am so sorry that I am a part of this society and culture.”
Condoling, the Indian Medical Association questioned the airlifting of the victim to Singapore for advanced treatment and wanted to know whether hospitals in India lacked infrastructure to treat such patients.
The IMA asked the government whether the reason to shift the patient was purely for medical purposes or there were other factors.
