The head of the women’s wing of a secularist opposition party in India suggested in commemoration of International Women’s Day that the country should offer impunity to all women for one murder in response to the widespread rape of girls and women in the country.
Rohini Khadse of the secularist Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar’s), or NCP-SP, wrote in a letter to Indian President Droupadi Murmu on March 8, International Women’s Day, that women in the country “want to kill the oppressive mentality, the rapist tendency, the inefficiency of law and order.” To do that, she implied women will have to kill men.
The NCP-SP is one of several parties in opposition to the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under whose rule India has seen skyrocketing rates of gang rapes and gruesome killings of girls and women. It is part of the INDIA coalition led by the country’s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, typically referred to as Congress.
In her letter to Murmu, Khadse referenced the recent gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl by five men in Mumbai. The girl reportedly told police that she ran out of her home after a domestic argument when a neighbor approached her and convinced her to come to his home, where he and four other men gang-raped her.
“The incident happened two days ago in Mumbai, think what the situation might be across the country,” Khadse wrote. “In the World Population Review Survey, India was ranked the most unsafe country for women in Asia concerning their safety and security.”
“We, on behalf of all women, are demanding immunity (from punishment) to commit one murder,” Khadse wrote. “We want to kill the oppressive mentality, the rapist tendency, the inefficiency of law and order… We hope our demand will be granted after giving it a serious thought.”
The political leader added references to Indian women throughout history who joined wars to protect the country.
“At the time when their kingdom was in danger, heroic women like Maharani Tararani, Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar, and others pulled out the sword in the defence of their people,” she recalled. “We are facing another kind of danger. Why should women today lag?”
India’s criminal code contains provisions that allow self-defense, including homicide in self-defense if deemed necessary, though these cases require trials for courts to determine whether they are cases of legitimate self defense or not. Khadse appeared to be calling for a policy that allows women to avoid a legal process to verify self-defense.
In addition to the legality of self-defense, some women who have been known to use violence against would-be rapists have received public praise from police.
“The presence of mind and courage shown by the survivor is praiseworthy,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Pandey of Bihar, India, told reporters in September, describing a case in which a nurse allegedly used a surgical blade to cut a doctor’s genitals and escaped what appeared to be a plan for a gang-rape.
Khadse’s party supported her letter, which Hindu nationalists – who routinely disregard reports of violence against women as well as severe persecution of non-Hindus – dismissed. NCP-SP spokesperson Clyde Crasto said in a statement that the BJP government “needs to find out why Khadse has made this demand.”
“Women are being pushed against the wall with nobody coming to their help. Women are desperate for a peaceful atmosphere and, therefore, such things are now cropping up in their minds,” Crasto explained. “Khadse is vocalising the anguish in the minds of women.”
Khadse joined other members of the NCP-SP to protest for women’s rights in Mumbai this weekend, chanting slogans such as “self-defense education should be in the curriculum” in opposition to rampant anti-woman violence. Police reportedly detained several women at the event, according to the party.
“Today is Women’s Day and the government is talking about women’s dignity everywhere, congratulating them, but no one from the government has even five minutes to listen to the suffering of women,” Khadse said at the protest.
Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked International Women’s Day by handing over his Twitter account to six prominent Indian women, allowing them to share their stories and call for more support for women generally.
The Modi government has long faced criticism for years of growing numbers of rape, domestic violence, homicide, and other crimes against women with little apparent action by law enforcement authorities. Parliament opposition leader Rahul Gandhi once mocked Modi’s “Make in India” domestic production campaign in 2019 by suggesting he should rename it “Rape in India,” leading to BJP officials condemning Gandhi for apparently suggesting rapists should visit the country for a favorable rape climate. Gandhi did not apologize, instead publishing rape statistics in the country.
The U.S. State Department has for years warned American women to take extra precautions in the country due to elevated numbers of incidents of rape and other crimes against women there.
Police have documented cases of rape and murder across the country and spanning economic classes. In one particularly harrowing case in August, the body of a 31-year-old resident doctor was found mutilated in a seminar room at a hospital in Kolkata, later found to have been raped and brutally beaten to death. Her rape and killing occurred while the hospital was operational, meaning other health workers and patients were present in the complex while the attack occurred.
Police arrested a man in connection with the killing, Sanjay Roy, identified as a “civil volunteer” who routinely impersonated police, had a long history of domestic violence, and whose phone was found to carry copious amounts of violent pornography. It is not clear why Roy was allowed into the hospital, as he did not seem to have any relation to any patients there, was not a patient himself, and was not employed by the hospital. In a dark testament to the state of the country, searches on Google for the phrases “rape video” and “rape porn” following the news of the resident’s killing skyrocketed in India, as well as searches using the victim’s name after it leaked to media.
The case prompted nationwide protests by doctors and other health workers who demanded safe working spaces. A short-lived strike also incapacitated clinics and hospitals in the country.
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