A Moment of Extreme Frustration Post Nirbhaya: Sheila Dikshit

After Nirbhaya incident, the unresponsive stance by the Centre seemed deliberate, writes Sheila Dikshit.

(Three time former Delhi chief minister, Shelia Dikshit, passed away on 20 July 2019. The following excerpt from her book is is being reposted in that context.)

(Excerpted with permission from ‘Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life’, authored by Sheila Dikshit and published by Bloomsbury.)

As the winter of 2012 approached, I was overcome with fatigue and bouts of breathlessness. The doctors confirmed a ninety percent blockage in my right coronary artery, and I underwent my second angioplasty after 2006. I felt it was time for me to step away from electoral politics.

My family told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to put health concerns before everything else. My decision to resign was almost certain. Moreover, with a year to go for the assembly election, the party had enough time to find an alternative. I was ready to campaign, if required.

An Incident that Shook the Nation

As I slowly recovered my strength and prepared to inform the high command of my decision to step down, Delhi, and India, was shaken to its core on 16 December. Twenty-three-year-old Nirbhaya, who was studying physiotherapy, was gang-raped and tortured by six men in a private bus that she had boarded with her friend, who too was beaten up mercilessly. Thrown out of the bus, they lay on the road when some good Samaritans came across them and took them to Safdarjung Hospital.

At a time when India was witnessing a rising graph of violent crimes against women, this one pierced the heart.

A young educated girl from a modest background, standing at the threshold of a life she had made for herself, her only crime had been her self-confidence. I immediately called up senior officials in the Delhi government as well as police officers to get a sense of the situation.

While people of all ages took to the streets and held candle light vigils, their anger and anguish palpable in their eyes, our government appeared non-responsive.

Even as I quietly reached out to Nirbhaya’s family to extend them every possible help, my statement that law and order did not fall within our government’s jurisdiction was viewed as being an insensitive attempt at passing the buck.

Centre’s Unresponsive Stance

Never the less, it was not so. I too was a woman – moreover, a mother and a grandmother. In the last decade or so, the growing confidence of the young girls and women of my city had been my source of delight. It sickened me as a long-time resident of Delhi to see this face of the city. I knew that the people who came to my house did so because they saw me as the face of Delhi.

What should have been a moment for me to take charge of the situation was reduced to a moment of extreme frustration for the simple reason that law and order in Delhi was the Centre’s responsibility.

Had the Union Home Ministry responded with urgency and addressed the Delhi police, the people would have realised whose call it was to initiate action and would have seen the concern expressed by the government.

The Centre’s unresponsive stance immediately after the incident seemed deliberate as it shifted the focus entirely on the Delhi government.

‘Sensed Resistance to My Presence at Jantar Mantar’

I respected the anger of the people for I knew where it was coming from. As a woman, Chief Minister and a Congresswoman, I decided to go to Jantar Mantar to show my solidarity with the people who had gathered there, even though my officials had warned me that I might not be welcome. When I reached Jantar Mantar, I sensed some resistance to my presence, but no one abused me or tried to block my passage as I lit a candle for Nirbhaya.

Sandeep’s car, however, was pelted with stones when he attempted to join the protest at India Gate. I also met Nirbhaya’s friend. Hearing his account further firmed my resolve to help Nirbhaya and her family.

I personally monitored her situation day after day, our government arranged for her transfer to a hospital in Singapore. I approached the Union Home Minister and set up a meeting with the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to initiate fast-track courts.

Reforms Post Nirbhaya Case

On 29 December, Nirbhaya lost the battle for her life. For the family, the loss of a dear one is irreparable. Our government extended its sympathy in the way it could, by providing financial support and helping her brother realise his ambition to be a pilot. I continue to be in touch with them.

By January 2013, the Justice Verma Committee, which had been tasked with recommending amendments to the criminal law to ensure speedier trial and enhanced punishment in cases of sexual assaults against women, had submitted its report to the Central government.

The preface of the report stated, ‘Failure of good governance is the obvious root cause for the current unsafe environment eroding the rule of law.’ It also mentioned an urgent need for police reforms as well as an attitudinal change in society ‘to correct the aberration of gender bias’.

By mid-March, both Houses of Parliament had passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013. On 2 April 2013, President Pranab Mukherjee gave his consent to the Bill, and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, came into force. It occurred to me that the increasing violence, including sexual crimes, against women were taking place at a time when more and more of them were stepping out of their homes to pursue an education or a career, and were not lacking in self-confidence.