The Supreme Court (SC) took suo moto cognizance of a video circulated on social media (SM) in which two Kuki women were paraded naked and supposedly subjected to sexual violence as per media reports.
SC takes cognizance of the Manipur video
Taking suo moto cognizance of the Manipur video showing Kuki women being paraded naked.”‘Using women as an instrument in an area of communal strife. Grossest of constitutional abuse. We are deeply disturbed by the videos which have emerged”, CJI DY Chandrachud said.
The CJI added that they would act if the government does not. “Simply unacceptable. Using women as an instrument in an area of communal strife. Grossest of constitutional abuse. We are deeply disturbed by the videos which have emerged. If the government does not act, we will. We will give a little time for the government to take action otherwise we will step in”, he said.
The CJI asked for the presence of the Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, and the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta. The SC bench, comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra, requested responses from both the Central and State governments regarding the actions taken to bring the perpetrators of a recent violent incident to justice. The SC emphasized that the government must inform the court about the measures taken to hold the culprits accountable for their actions.
The media and visuals of the incident revealed a severe violation of constitutional principles and a disregard for human life, with women being used as instruments of violence. Such actions are incompatible with constitutional democracy. The SC directed the Centre and State to provide detailed information on the steps taken in this regard.
Mehta, representing the Central government, expressed strong condemnation of the incident and expressed solidarity with the SC’s stance on the matter. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the government, informed a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that the Central government has no objections if the Supreme Court decides to monitor the case.
“This video came to light but this is not the only incident where assault or harassment is done to women, there are also other women. So this is not an isolated incident. We also have to make a mechanism to see the broader issue of violence against women. This mechanism should ensure that all such cases are taken care of,” said CJI DY Chandrachud.
SC ignores West Bengal violence
The point to be emphasized here is the CJI’s remark about a mechanism to deal with violence against women. This brings us to the question – do women of Bengal not deserve justice? Does the SC imply that women’s rights depend on which side of the political divide they belong to?
BJP’s Locker Chatterjee had raised the case of a BJP woman candidate being paraded naked by TMC workers in Howrah. Is it not a violation of human rights when Hindu women are brutally raped and killed or when Hindu men are murdered mercilessly? Such violations have been taking place unabated in West Bengal since the TMC won the 2021 Assembly elections. However, the SC that lost no time in taking suo moto cognizance in the Manipur case has conveniently looked away from WB since 2021.
The Bengal post-poll violence is one of those horrific episodes where the victims are awaiting justice only because they belong to the so-called majority community. “Murders, filthy abuses, dishonour of women, burning of business establishments and houses, forceful apologies, losing benefits of government schemes and a state of continuous fear, is the fate of voters and workers who supported the BJP in West Bengal”, says a ground report by Organiser.
A fact-finding team headed by a retired High Court Chief Justice found that there were 15,000 incidents of post-poll violence in West Bengal in which 25 people were killed and 7,000 women were molested.
The report stated that the magnitude and reach of the post-poll violence touched many villages and towns all across West Bengal simultaneously beginning the night of May 2 when the results of the assembly elections were declared.
16 out of the total 23 districts of the state were affected by the post-poll violence, which the team found was premeditated, organised and conspiratorial. So severe was this targeted violence against BJP workers and supporters that many were driven out of their homes and had to take shelter in camps within and outside the state, in Assam, Jharkhand and Odisha. The team found that in many cases of violence, WB police were hand-in-glove with the perpetrators.
Back then HinduPost had reached out to Smt. Rakhi Mitra, Secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha in WB, to understand the situation on the ground.
As per Rakhi ji, as of 9 May 2021, 18 BJP supporters or their family members have been murdered, 170 women have been raped, 6126 women molested, 2942 villages have been affected, 4105 people are severely affected (houses burnt/vandalised etc) while 33,840 have been rendered homeless (fled in fear) out of which 14,245 are from SC/ST communities. 300 villages are severely affected. 1800 people have fled to the neighbouring states of Assam, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
The horror stories emerging from Bengal are heart-wrenching, to say the least, but the SC seems to find no time or probably no inclination to deliver justice to the women of Bengal. An injustice against any woman anywhere is condemnable and punishable but for the secular Indian judiciary, some women are mere statistics if they come from a particular side of the divide.
