ISLAMABAD: About 6,000 citizens came together to express their shock and horror at the pre-mature release of 11 Hindutva men convicted of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her daughter. The citizens released a joint statement in solidarity with the Muslim woman and her family.
The statement was issued by a number of grassroots workers, women’s rights advocates, human rights activists, peace lovers, secularists, anti-caste activists, disability, queer rights activists and other peoples’ movements, groups and activists, eminent writers, historians, scholars, filmmakers, journalists and former bureaucrats and many more.
According to Kashmir media service, “On the morning of August 15, 2022, in his Independence Day address to the nation the Prime Minister of India spoke of women’s rights, dignity and Nari Shakti. That very afternoon Bilkis Bano, a woman who embodied that ‘Nari Shakti’ in her long and daunting struggle for justice, learnt that the perpetrators who killed her family, murdered her three year old daughter, gang-raped and left her to die, had walked free,” read the statement.
The statement reads: “No one sent her notice. No one asked how she, a gang-rape survivor, felt about the release of her rapists… it shames us that the day we should celebrate our freedoms and be proud of our independence, the women of India instead saw gang-rapists and mass murderers freed as an act of State largesse.”
The remission of sentences for the 11 convicted of gang-rape and mass murder will have a chilling effect on every rape victim who is told to ‘trust the system’, ‘seek justice’, ‘have faith,’ according to the signed statement of citizens and groups.
The statement further stated that the “remission of these sentences is not only immoral and unconscionable, it violates the State of Gujarat’s own existing remission policy…” and “the guidelines issued by the Central government to States on a prisoner release policy to coincide with Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav which also clearly states that among the categories of prisoners NOT to be granted Special Remission are “those convicted of rape”.
Most importantly, in a case investigated and prosecuted by the CBI, no remission can be granted by a State without concurrence by the Union government, they said. That such a remission was even considered, and then permitted, reveals the hollowness of the public posturing about Nari Shakti, Beti Bachao, women’s rights and justice for victims, according to the statement.
Hence, the statement urged the Supreme Court to undo this grave miscarriage of justice.
Prominent groups, organisations and networks among the signatories to the statement are:
Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, Gamana Mahila Samuha, Bebaak Collective, All India Progressive Women’s Association, Uttarakhand Mahila Manch, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Pragatisheel Mahila Manch, Parcham Collective, Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, Amoomat Society, WomComMatters, Centre for Struggling Women, Sahiyar, Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Women & Transgender Joint Action Committee, Bailancho Saad, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties, All India Lawyers Association for Justice, National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements, Bhagat Singh Ambedkar Students Organization, All India Students Association, Mission Justice & Bahutva Karnataka, Swaraj Abhiyan, Democracy Collective, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations, Penn Urimay Iyakkam, Delhi Solidarity Group, Collective, Peoples’ Watch, United Christian Forum, Jharkhand Jan Adhikar Mahasabha, National Platform for Rights of the Disabled, CityMakers Mission International, Association of Protection of Democratic Rights, Progressive Writers Association, Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, Delhi Science Forum, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, National Federation of Indian Women, Movement For Secular Democracy, Hindus for Human Rights and South Asia Forum for Human Rights.
Some of the notable activists, scholars, and other citizens who signed the statement are: Syeda Hameed, Zafarul-Islam Khan, Roop Rekha Verma, Devaki Jain, Uma Chakravarti, Subhashini Ali, Kavita Krishnan, Maimoona Mollah, Hasina Khan, Rachana Mudraboyina, Shabnam Hashmi, Gabriele Dietrich, Zakia Soman, Arundhati Dhuru, Meera Sanghamitra, Madhu Bhushan, Kavita Srivastav, Ammu Abraham, Navsharan Singh, Khalida Parveen, Anjali Bharadwaj, Malika Virdi, Bittu K R, Pyoli Swatija, Dr Ajita, Dipta Bhog, Poonam Kaushik, Bondita Acharya, Chayanika Shah, Kalyani Menon Sen, Madhuri K, Maya John, Vahida Nainar, Monisha Behl, Mridul D, Sarojini NB, Vihaan Vee, Rumi Harish, Ranjita Biswas, Lara Jesani, Amrita Johri, Aqsa Shaikh, Mira Shiva, Sabina Martins, Fr Cedric Prakash, Veena Shatrugna, Keval Arora, V Geetha, Padmaja Shaw, Sadhna Arya, Nivedita Menon, Nandini Sundar, Kumkum Roy, Pratiksha Baxi, Rohini Hensman, Nandita Narain, Kumkum Roy, Pulin Nayak, Suvir Kaul, Subir Sinha, Vineeta Bal, Salil Mishra, Meena Kandasamy, Kalpana Sharma, Mukul Kesavan, Pamela Philipose, Laxmi Murthy, Freny Manecksha, Brinelle D’Souza, Revati Laul, Ammu Joseph, Sujata Madhok, Sameera Khan, Sagarika Ghosh, Maya Krishna Rao, Sheba Chachhi, Rajiv Mehrotra, Amar Kanwar, Niranjani, Yousuf Saeed, Reena Mohan, Sameera Jain, Pushpamala N, Priya Thuvassery and Anjali Monteiro.
