The controversy over the documentary "India’s Daughter" is not dying down. The documentary was made with the consent of the parents of Nirbhaya, the unfortunate teenage girl who was brutally raped and murdered. The documentary came to the forefront when the promotions started in NDTV by providing some of the statements of one of the accused and the defense lawyers. The controversy has not done anything to the mindset of perverted men and the rape incidents are still reported from different parts of the country. Who has gained from this controversy? The producer of the documentary got cheap publicity and the documentary is now a hot sought item which will break many box-office feature films collection records. The other group who has benefitted from the controversy is the media who is running non-stop discussions and increasing their TRPs. In this context we have to dissect the subject to understand more about the controversy.
This article is written to show utter contempt for a system that allows people to get away with outrageous statements like, “we have the best culture and there is no place for a woman in our culture”; “I will take my daughter to my farm house and burn her alive if my daughter shames me”; women shouldn’t go out at night; women shouldn’t wear jeans and clothes of their choices; “boys are boys and mistakes happen”. The men who made these contemptuous remarks are so called educated people who are lawyers, police officers, and politicians. What a tragedy? If these men can say what they want to say in the name of freedom of speech and expression, why not the documentary maker be allowed to exercise the same right? The controversial documentary, “India’s Daughter” just throws light on this tragic scenario and shows how crude and disgusting the reality is. It keeps a mirror right in front of our face to look at ourselves and see for ourselves what we are in reality. Is not banning the film amounts to curtailing freedom of expression? And we call ourselves the largest democracy in the world. What an irony!
The supporters of the banning of Leslee Udwin’s documentary “India’s Daughter” argue that the film is an attempt to defame India and it will have a negative effect on India’s tourism. We are defaming ourselves each time we make statements like the ones mentioned above. We make India less and less attractive for tourists each time when a rape takes place. It is shameful that Delhi is internationally known as the rape capital. Are we angry that we ourselves couldn’t gather enough courage to make such a film and it needed a foreigner to venture for this task?
Some people argue that by showing the convicts’ interview the film glorifies their views and hence glorifies the rape itself. In fact, the showing of the mindset of the convicts tells us a bigger story. It reveals the mindset of these kinds of people, their perception, and their views on women. The convicts aren’t the only ones who have this kind of view on women, the defense lawyers who shamed us by making pre-historic statements, the police officer who blames rape on the clothing women wear, the politicians who think boys are boys and they make mistakes and a good chunk of our society including some women think in those lines. We should be ashamed of this kind of mindset. The viewing of the film might force us to introspect and rectify this thinking and change our behavior. If the film is banned on the basis that it glorifies the convict’s point of view, then how come we aired Bandit Queen, Damini, and Lakshmi that showed the crude reality of rape? We all are aware of this ugly truth, but we as a society are habituated to keep a blind eye for the ugliness and don’t like to face it and try to escape it and pretend that all is well. Thanks to thousands and lakhs of young men and women who took to the streets and showed compassion and courage to fight for Nirbhaya and hence put an unprecedented pressure on the government to change the law. This documentary is the mirror that shows our own ugly face to ourselves. By breaking the mirror in rage is not going to make us look beautiful. If we are uncomfortable that the film is done by a foreigner who is trying to lecture us about our own vices, why did we permit the interviews in the first place? We should have denied the permission when requested and this might have stopped her making the documentary. If the film maker violated any legalities that could be investigated, discussed and action could be taken in that direction. Banning the film is no solution. In the present age of social media it’s not only difficult but sometimes impossible to prevent people from seeing what they want to see. People should have their freedom of choice if they want to see this documentary or not. Lakhs of people watched the film aired by BBC in UK. People who have seen the documentary are disgusted with the chilling revelations, the mindset and moved by it.
We should seriously introspect that why the horrific incident like the one on Dec 16, 2012 happened; why the Ashiana case took 10 years to even open for a trial; why Jessica lal’s murderer got away with the crime for so many years just to name a few? We all as citizens of India should work towards preventing crimes like female infanticide, discriminatory treatment for the girls in their own families, domestic violence against women, rape which includes marital rape. “Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao” campaign initiated by our Prime Minister Modi is an important step towards gender equality. We should follow this campaign in its letter and spirit.
Bhabani Mishra. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
