Dear Kossaks.,
I want your inputs and thoughts. I am sure that many, if not most of you are aware of the brutal rape of an Indian paramedical student. She fought bravely for her life for 13 days before succumbing to her injuries a few days before New Year.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
It is extremely uncommon in India for a case like this to rattle the public and the politicians. No one who expressed anything but absolute support for women's rights have been spared (as it should be!). In the two decades that i have closely followed Indian politics, i have never seen the Prime Minister and the head of the ruling party (Sonia Gandhi - the most powerful Indian politician) having to answer for a single incident before, like it happened in this case.
To summarize: The girl and her male friend watch a movie ("Life of Pi") and board a city bus, run by a contractor at 9:30 PM. There were 5 men apart from the driver and after passing lewd comments, they beat up the boy and brutally assaulted the girl. How Brutal? Not only was she gang raped by 6 men, they inserted the rusted iron tyre jack and tore her intestines. After she was savaged, both she & her friend were thrown out of the moving bus and left to die on the road. The driver apparently missed running over her. She was found with just 5% of her intestines inside her body.
The treatment was an uphill battle. Even in her pain, she gave her testimony, not ONCE but TWICE through hand signs to the Police in the presence of a magistrate. Given the precarious condition of the patient, the protests that erupted on the street and the need for best care, Indian government shifted her to Singapore but she died within 36 hours because of multiple organ failure.
Her name has not been released publicly. As a father, as an uncle, as a cousin and as a husband - i was OUTRAGED when i heard of this case.
My Question to fellow Kossaks: Why should the six men be spared of the death sentence? I don't advocate death sentence lightly. India uses the death sentence sparingly. I always believed that solitary confinment for the rest of life without a chance for parole or contact with any human being is the worst punishment. But in this case, why should society show any lenience to the six rapists who brutally savaged an innocent 23 year old? Why should death penalty be abolished?