Raheem Khan
JAIPUR—On Wednesday, various women and human rights organizations held a massive protest rally at the Jaipur Shaheed Smarak against the release of the convicts in the Bilki Bano case and the increasing crime against women in Rajasthan.
Among those who addressed the rally, social activists Aruna Roy and Brinda Karat were prominent.
The activists strongly condemned the irresponsible and indifferent attitude of the Rajasthan government and the state police toward the increasing incidents of rape and sexual violence against women in the state.
The participants demanded immediate withdrawal of the Gujarat government’s decision to remit the life sentence given to convicts in the Bilkis Bano case that also involved the murder of several of her family members.
According to media reports, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had said at the convocation ceremony of RPA’s trainee sub-inspectors and platoon commanders on September 2, 2022, that rape accused did not come from abroad. In most cases, family acquaintances and relatives are the accused. He, however, praised the police officers saying that the police had acted in all the genuine complaints in rape cases.
Gehlot had said that the image of the Rajasthan police was getting tarnished due to false registration of cases related to atrocities against women. According to Gehlot, 56 per cent of cases about atrocities on women were found to be incorrect.
The CM asked the Director General of Police to initiate action against those involved in the false registration of cases.
But Aruna Roy strongly objected to Gehlot’s statements. She said CM’s statements would encourage police not to register women’s complaints. Police have already avoided filing FIR and complaints about atrocities against women. “We want the Rajasthan CM to take back his statement,” Roy, national president of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), said.
Taking strong exception to Gehlot’s statements, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) leader Brinda Karat said that “if the Chief Minister says that women file false FIRs, then what is the difference between him and the RSS, which holds the same belief about women? The chief minister should withdraw this statement and apologize to the women.”
PUCL Rajasthan president Kavita Srivastava demanded to make Rajasthan “free of violence against women.”
She said that the people across Rajasthan were outraged against the growing sexual violence and atrocities against women. She said that
the increasing incidents of rape and sexual violence were not just a question of statistics but a fundamental question of increasing insecurity and crime against women and girls.
She said, “it is the government’s failure that it has not been able to provide a safe environment for women and girls in Rajasthan, let alone a fair and just investigation.”
Aruna and Karat said that the criminals in the Bilkis Bano case were released in the context of the Gujarat Assembly elections to be held in December, which will further polarize the society. And its benefit will go to BJP.
A memorandum was also signed by all those who came to the rally. It was sent to the President of India to send back the rapists of Bilkis Bano to jail.
The main demands of the memorandum given to the Chief Minister included:
*To stop the atrocities on women and girls in the state.
*In the context of the 2013 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, the report of Justice JS Verma constituted by the UPA government should be fully implemented.
* To fix the crumbling and corrupt police system, the decision of Prakash Singh Vs the government of India and others should be strictly implemented.
*A rehabilitation policy should be prepared for the girls and women victims of violence and the entitlements of the victims should be given immediately.
Others who took part in the rally were Nisha Sidhu of NFIW, Saeeda Begum of Janwadi Mahila Samiti, Aradhana from Azad Foundation, Ritansh Azad of AIRSO, Rubina Abrar and Sabiha, State Women Secretaries of Jamaat Islami Hind Rajasthan, Basna Chakraborty of Rajasthan Mahila Kamgar Union, and Nishat Hussain and Kohinoor of the National Muslim Women’s Welfare Society. Ruva’s Lad Kumari Jain, Apva’s Bhanwari Bai and Manju Lata, PUCL Rajasthan’s Kavita Srivastava, etc., addressed the rally.
The programme was conducted by Sumitra Chopra, Manjula, Mihika and Nisha Sidhu. In addition, CPIM secretary Amra Ram, Rajasthan Samagra Seva Sangh’s Sawai Singh, Jamaat Islami Hind Rajasthan’s state president Mohammad Nazimuddin, state general secretary Dr Mohammad Iqbal, PUCL’s Premkrishna Sharma, etc. expressed their solidarity with Bilkis Bano and women victims of violence.
At the end of the meeting, a rally was taken out from Martyrs Memorial to Albert Hall Jaipur. In the rally, slogans like “Ashok Gehlot take back the anti-women statement” and ‘Nari Shakti’ were raised loudly.
