Trigger Warning: Mentions Rape And Violence
Imagine defending rapists behind a case where a 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted and raped in a moving bus. Imagine defending a rapist who during an interview suggests “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,”. Further on, Mukesh Singh (the rapist) continues before being hanged to death, “The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”
Nirbhaya gang rape case, incident that sparked widespread outrage and protests across India, prompting a reevaluation of the country’s laws and societal attitudes toward sexual assault. A case which grabbed international attention to the point Leslee Udwin’s documentary India’s daughter was banned by the government on the point made by Minakshi Lekhi in Parliament where she said the film will affect tourism. This article rather focuses on the mindset of Manohar Lal Sharma, an advocate who defended rapists behind the nirbhaya rape case by revisiting an interview by Newslaundary where Abhinandan Sekhri sat with ML Sharma.
This segment of the interview begins with him asked on his stance if women are equally responsible for the rape to which he explains that a predator cannot penetrate without being “excited”. He continues on that the first step is excitement similar to that of sex and a man will be excited when he gets the “atmosphere”. And whether he gets an atmosphere or not depends on the circumstances in which he is with or without the fact if he is married or not.
Once the atmosphere is there, the girl puts herself in a circumstance to get raped. And on rape victims, ML Sharma argues if you have a bread or sweetmeat and you put it outside your house, neighbourhood dogs will eat it eventually. He argues that it is the responsibility of every woman to keep herself in a protected environment and not to create a “circumstace” that will lead to rape.
As we move to the second half of the interview, Abhidandan asks him what should be done to stop rapes in India. ML Sharma explains how to end rape first thing will be to end the sexual atmosphere that has been created in movies, “bikini” ads, semi-nudes, commercials using girls to grab the attention with sexual means. The knowledge of sex as per ML Sharma should be imparted to the individuals only after marriage and nothing before it (forget the sex-ed we have been promoting in schools).
He concludes himself with the argument, “Sexual pose (with or without clothes) always creates sexual affect in the mind of innocent boys”. The interview continues with hilarious conversations on Indian culture where at last ML Sharma disowns Abhinandan Sekhri from Indian culture.
Despite the fact it’s been over 11 years since the tragic event, rapes in India is not on decline. Important to note here is, it’s always encouraged to report a rape rather than letting it go under the rug out of shame. As an individual, I do sometimes comprehend society and the mindset of people. Like that of ML Sharma, him being a lawyer who advocates his thoughts, one thing to consider is how many in the society hold opinions similar to him but just not discussing. Despite how absurd his arguments been, with rise of social media, is society actually advocating more of sexual atmosphere in ML Sharma’s terms leading to rise in rapes, sexual assault, child abuse, online harassments and domestic violence?
Link to part 1 of interview (This segment starts 13minute onwards): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCoprWSzTLQ
Link to part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW2hU3W0-UQ