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In an alternate universe...
Lakhs of people were moved out of their social media stupors, shaken from their Twitter outrage into pouring onto the streets to demand a longer incarceration for Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the convicted rapist who abused God knows how many of his female followers, and ensure that he does not receive any VIP treatment in jail after his rockstar entry to court in a 100-car cavalcade. Taken aback by the strength of the reaction, one of The Rapist’s acolytes appealed to the protesters’ patriotism:
That was the last straw. Incensed citizens couldn’t take it anymore, having had their intelligence insulted for the very last time. Buses were burnt, windows were smashed, and The Rapist and his supporters were given Z-plus security in light of an influx of death threats.
The situation deteriorated soon after a quantum of sentence shorter than his years of perpetrating abuse was handed out to The Rapist. Thousands of women camped outside the court, wailing at the verdict, while men of all ages gathered around his ashram in Haryana and burnt DVDs of his movies with terrible, terrible CG.
Reportedly, 45 buses had been set on fire and 20 petrol pumps, damaged. Out of 387 LPG companies, 185 were out of stock. With no way left to show their frustration at a country that still takes decades or more to solve each rape case only to hand out a staycation in a VIP guesthouse, the citizenry came out in force.
Hotels and restaurants across Gurgaon, Punjab and Delhi said they incurred losses as travellers stayed away fearing eruption of violence.
The Gurgaon police was forced to conduct raids of the houses of ‘district level action groups’ called ‘Kranti’ (Revolution) formed on Whatsapp that sought to arm and mobilise rape-stoppers, reaching out the young and old of their block encouraging them to riot (and burn more DVDs) if the court’s verdict fell short. Search groups were formed by people across North India to locate more of The Rapist’s followers who may have been raped and extend the hand of solidarity and enjoin them to the cause.
In the nick of time, police uncovered and stopped a nefarious conspiracy plan wherein the coded message “Na Rahega Ram, Na Rahega Rahim” was sent to certain groups in Delhi to spark off violence if yet another rape survivor re-lived her horror only for The Rapist to receive a slap on the wrist.
The government bears the blame for failing to assess the anger of the people. The date for the hearing was known much in advance. After decades of inadequate sentencing of rapists, any two-bit observer could have anticipated that the situation was becoming untenable.
Could this really be the turning point in India where thousands of men, women and young adults take to the streets, rallying their life in support of a rape survivor and swearing to go to any extent to ensure she receives justice, even at the sake of their own safety?
Not any time soon, by the looks of it.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)