01, Aug 1993

Hindutva’s Hard Sell

The BJP’s claim of being “within striking distance of the Centre” is bogus. But only the purblind will deny that, as of now, the party which is playing with fire seems to be the only dynamic force in the political arena 

It is only that the individual accounts get more gruesome. Acid is now injected into the veins of a dowry victim, a deaf and dumb mute girl raped. These increasing instances of brutal violence against women are tragically, well-spread out regionally, with no community, caste or class free from the trend.

Bombay. March-June 1993. Six rapes of minor girls, two of whom were murdered, in the Antop Hill area alone.

Goa, June 1993. Woman publicly stripped allegedly because she was found stealing coconuts.

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. May 1993. Harijan woman publicly stripped and thrashed within a stone’s throw of the police station and district magistrate’s court, because husband was accused of stealing.

Bombay. June 1993: A 14-year-old, burnt alive nearby Thane by some local youths. Three years ago, another teenage was set ablaze within school premises in nearby Ulhasnagar.

Sirsa. Haryana 1993. 4,400 unborn girls every year. Over 100 clinics that offer sex-determination tests prior to abortion also offer semen implants to produce boys.

Maharashtra. 1988-93. Female foeticide flourishes despite the fact that sex-determination tests to determine sex of the child have been banned since 1988.

Karnataka. Impoverished Kuttawadi tribals sell their girls to plantation owners of Mysore and other districts.

Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabadi muslims sell their girls to Arabs, also due to acute poverty.

Arunachal Pradesh. Polygamy on the rise.

Rajasthan. May 1993. Action against polygamous government officials shelved due to pressure from the “meena” tribe where the practice is prevalent.

Punjab and Kashmir. Gruesome attacks by Indian security forces matched by brutal attacks of women by militants.

Surat. Gujarat. December 1993. Mass gang rapes of Muslims women, by mobs led by BJP and Congress (I) leaders.

Bombay. March-April 1993. Hundreds of Muslim women physically and mentally tortured inside police lock-ups under the pretext of investigation into the serial bomb blasts.

New Delhi. June 1993. Five policemen held for raping a 11-year-old Bangladeshi girl.

Manibeli. Maharashtra July 1993. Policemen accused of raping Narmada Bachao Andolan activists.

India 1993. 7,000 Nepalese girls fill our brothels every year.

Between 1987-91 statistics show a sharp rise in crimes against women: unnatural deaths shot up by 170 per cent, instances of rape by 26 per cent, kidnapping by 36 per cent, molestation by 27 per cent, eve-teasing by 41 per cent, while cruelty generally has gone up by 38 per cent.

Cases of pedophilia (rape of a child below 10 years) has shown a staggering 279 per cent increase during 1991 with 1,099 cases compared with 394 reported in the previous year. (Figures published by the National Crime Records Bureau).