New Delhi: More than 10,000 citizens and women’s rights groups around the world have signed a petition condemning the brutality that led to the death of the 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras and have demanded punishment for those responsible.
“Shame on the state that supports the guilty. Shame for the State that increases the impunity with which upper caste forces commit violence and hate crimes, ”the statement read.
The statement calls for immediate action against state officials responsible for mishandling the case, destroying key evidence and further traumatizing the family and community.
The signatories include teachers, activists, journalists, homemakers, corporate sector executives, designers, cultural groups, artists, writers, poets, school teachers, students, retired public and private officials, film societies, medical students and professors, and others, IT professionals, and many others.
These include progressive voices such as Syeda Hamid, Aruna Roy, Maimoona Mollah and Annie Raja, retired civil servants such as Jawahar Sircar, Jerusha Rai, Kavita Singh and legal luminaries such as Indira Jaising, Flavia Agnes, Poonam Kaushik and Shalini Gera.
High-level journalists like Ankita Anand and Pamela Phillipose, artists like Aparna Sen, and academics like Mary John, Nivedita Menon, and Janaki Nair are also signatories.
Hundreds of rights groups, including Saheli, Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression, Dalit Sthree Sakthi, NFIW, AIDWA, AIPWA and others, also signed the statement.
Referring to the blatant Casteism surrounding the case, the statement points to the particularly miserable condition of Dalits and women in Uttar Pradesh, under the Adityanath government.
“While there is a historicity to these incidents, but under CM Yogi, Uttar Pradesh has only gone from bad to worse. Crimes against women and Dalits have increased, and the police have unlimited powers without responsibility. Today UP tops the lists of atrocities against Dalits, it also tops the lists of crimes against women. “
The signatories have tried to warn that calls for capital punishment seriously affect the movement for justice.
“The state should not, we repeat not, push for a rhetoric of the death penalty for rape, because we have seen time and again that this is not the answer to stop crime, sexual or otherwise, anywhere in the world. After all, in our own country, barely six months have passed since the hanging of the perpetrators of gang rape and murder in December 2012 in Delhi. Have you arrested the culprits in Hathras, Balramur, Bulandshahr or Azamgarh … or anywhere else?
The petition also notes that the brutality of this crime does not appear to have adequately shaken the conscience of the nation, as there are apologists everywhere.
“The growing base of support for Thakurs, the fact that no official visited the girl’s family even once after her death, tells us the facts as they are, nobody cares and caste solidarity remains one of the ugliest and strongest kinship performances of the modern Indian state and one that must be challenged and broken. “
The state’s actions will only further strengthen those who continue to commit such crimes without fear of punishment, he notes.
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