He asked for it

In the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday,Shantaram Naik,a Congress MP from Goa,created his own jurisprudence. A rape victim who moves with strangers for days together even beyond the middle of the night is to be treated on a different footing, he argued. These remarks were made as part of Naiks tirade against the media for highlighting the rape of a Russian woman in Goa,allegedly by a state politician after having dinner with him. Naiks comments provoked outrage across party lines,with allegations that he appeared to justify rape.

The horror of rapists being let off because of the character of the victim in the 1979 Mathura rape case led to landmark changes in our anti-rape laws. Amongst these were amendments making questioning the victims character and past sexual history irrelevant. But legislation is one thing,social attitudes quite another. The callousness with which rape victims continue to be treated,the aspersions defence counsels routinely cast on them,is a crime twice over. Naiks comments,despicable in themselves,are only representative of the persistent biases that rape victims have to deal with in securing justice.

It was therefore heartening to see Naiks comments condemned across the political spectrum. In the House,Naiks words drew outrage real-time,and his Zero Hour remarks were expunged from the official records of the Rajya Sabha proceedings. It is this sort of on-the-spot protest that is necessary to combat bigotry. Politicians who blame the victim for somehow asking for it have the potential to dissuade women from going to the authorities to file complaints. Equally,politicians who proactively counter these prejudices make justice delivery that much more likely. Shantaram Naiks outrageous comments deserved to be expunged from the Rajya Sabha records. If only expunging such chauvinism from society was as easy.