The 19-year-old girl’s death in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras after a brutal gang rape has once again exposed the real and apathetic face of our system. 

It takes cognizance when a Hathras’ girl either found to be brutally gang-raped or she met a terrible demise. When a similar incident to Nirbhaya took place eight years ago, it was believed that the country has woken up, but the Hathras’ girl gang rape case is belying that reality.

The incident happened on September 14, when the girl and her mother collected an animal feed from the field. The 19-year-old-girl was allegedly gang-raped by 4 upper-caste men and later strangled and dragged with her dupatta. Hathras’ girl was brutally abused and severely injured on the farm.

The assailants cut her tongue, severely injured her spinal cord and neck, and paralyzed in all four limbs and causing her painful death on Tuesday after battling for her life for two weeks. This incident has triggered widespread national outrage and protests by the opposition.

Not only that, but the poor soul was deprived of her funeral rights. UP Police cremated her dead body within 2 hours after it arrived at Hathras amid a midnight protest — quickly choked — from her family members and relatives.

It is unbelievable that the family could not even grieve over her body, but this is what happened in Yogi Sarkar Raj. The mother of the deceased had tears in her eyes, said that she could not even give her daughter the last farewell from her home. This wish will not be fulfilled. Hathras will never ever forget this terrible night.

Therefore, reports of her expeditious cremation without involving the victim’s family allegedly under UP police pressure led the opposition to question UP’s law and order status.

The fact is, this whole incident has again proved that our system is morally dead.

“Shameful Move”

After this incident, protests or rallies were held in many cities of the country. As protests erupted in several parts of the country with political leaders and activists protested the way a funeral was held near a women’s residence in Hathras, a local police officer said it was carried out ‘as per the wishes of the family’.

The victim’s brother said that some UP police officers were rude to them. Policemen took my sister’s dead body away without our permission and then cremated her. We could not see her even for the last time.

He appended that policemen were beaten up my family members when they opposed to seeing the body, adding that even women among family members were also assaulted.

On Wednesday, Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi had called the forced cremation of the rape victim of the Hathras gang-rape by UP police a shameful move by the UP government.

ये सब सिर्फ़ दलितों को दबाकर उन्हें समाज में उनका ‘स्थान’ दिखाने के लिए UP सरकार की शर्मनाक चाल है।

हमारी लड़ाई इसी घृणित सोच के ख़िलाफ़ है।#HathrasHorrorShocksIndia pic.twitter.com/b6Gym5HbUd

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 30, 2020

He tweeted in Hindi, “Suppressing Dalits and showing them their status in society is a shameful move by the state government.” Our battle is against this offensive and despicable thinking, he said along with a news report on the cremation of the rape victim.

Earlier, the party had demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for failure to act in a timely manner. 

UP के जंगलराज में बेटियों पर ज़ुल्म और सरकार की सीनाज़ोरी जारी है।

कभी जीते-जी सम्मान नहीं दिया और अंतिम संस्कार की गरिमा भी छीन ली।

भाजपा का नारा ‘बेटी बचाओ’ नहीं, ‘तथ्य छुपाओ, सत्ता बचाओ’ है।#BalrampurHorror

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 1, 2020

While attacking the Uttar Pradesh Yogi government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also said in his tweet: In the jungle raj of UP government, the harassment, and persecution of the daughters continue. They were never respected or honored while they were alive. During the funeral, the last shred of dignity was also taken away. The slogan of BJP is not “Save the daughter” (Beti Bachao), but it is “Hide the facts and save their seats/parties/power.”

Now, the next question raised by the leader of Congress is- Can Modi Ji only Walk in this Country? Can’t a Common Man Walk? 

On Thursday, 1 October, When Rahul Gandhi along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra traveled to Hathras, to meet the family of the Dalit girl who was allegedly gang-raped, congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi both were detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The Gandhi’s car was earlier flanked by anti-UP government protesters, as they reached Noida via the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) route.

After stopping at the Uttar Pradesh border, the Gandhi siblings, Priyanka and Rahul, started to hike to Hathras on foot, protesting the death and brutal rape of a 19-year-old Dalit girl. On the way to Hathras, the Congress workers and Gandhis were stopped by Uttar Pradesh police as the district administration sealed the borders.

हाथरस जाने से हमें रोका। राहुल जी के साथ हम सब पैदल निकले तो बारबार हमें रोका गया, बर्बर ढंग से लाठियाँ चलाईं। कई कार्यकर्ता घायल हैं। मगर हमारा इरादा पक्का है। एक अहंकारी सरकार की लाठियाँ हमें रोक नहीं सकतीं। काश यही लाठियाँ, यही पुलिस हाथरस की दलित बेटी की रक्षा में खड़ी होती। pic.twitter.com/lRq9kLSHJz

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 1, 2020

The UP policemen lathi-charged on congress worker and me, pushed me, and then threw me to the ground as he was stopped from marching on the Yamuna Expressway.

I want to ask, Can only Modi Ji walk in this country? Can BJP-RSS people only walk freely in this country? Can’t a common man walk? Our car stopped, so we started walking, Rahul told the media.

Priyanka and Rahul started walking towards the Uttar Pradesh city on foot after the UP cops stopped their vehicle. This happens amid outrage over the ‘forcible cremation’ of the victim by the Uttar Pradesh cops.

“I want to go to Hathras alone. What is my fault? Please tell me under which section are you arresting me,” Rahul Gandhi is seen asking in a video shared by Congress Twitter handles.

Meanwhile, according to the reports, the UP policemen said that the Congress leaders were arrested under Section 188 of the IPC, for violating the Epidemic Act.

However, on Thursday, Hathras district magistrate Praveen Lakshkar stated that the borders of Hathras had sealed and Section 144 had been imposed and banned the entry of all outsiders including media.

The question now is, Why does the UP government not want the media to enter the village? 

Reason: Is the UP government hiding the truth? It does not want the media to reveal the truth. We all know that the girl was brutally raped, as the victim said in her statement, even the video of her dying declaration went viral on social media platforms but Prashant Kumar, Uttar Pradesh ADG said that the teen died because of neck injuries and the forensic report clearly showed that she was not raped. 

Is this the reason for the “forced cremation” of the victim’s body by the Uttar Pradesh cops? 

Did anyone understand the game of UP government now?

Firstly, the victim’s body was forcibly burned by UP cops in the dark of night so that post-mortem would never happen again, and then let the matter cool down, they say it was not the rape case.

Reporters and activists on Twitter continued to raise several questions over the police of UP claims that the Hathras teen was not raped. Some point out that the victim said in her dying declaration that she was sexually assaulted by 4 men while others pointed out that the victim’s dead body was cremated conveniently.

CM Must Take Responsibility

Yogi Government needs to take responsibility for the safety of women. The violence and atrocities against women in UP must stop. The accused must be given the harshest punishment. At the same time last year, we were fighting for the Unnao rape victim. Since then, nothing has changed. Priyanka told the media.

एक घमंडी सत्ता मासूम बच्चियों के मृत शरीरों पर अपनी ताकत का प्रदर्शन कर रही है। अन्याय को रोकने के बजाए, खुद अन्याय कर रही है।

महिलाओं के लिए एक सुरक्षित समाज और प्रदेश के लिए- जहां वो आज़ादी से जी सकें और आगे बढ़ सकें – हमारा संघर्ष जारी रहेगा।

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 1, 2020

Uttar Pradesh: The State With Most Crimes Against Women

The crime rate of UP is one of the highest in the country. According to the National Crime Bureau, more than 10 rapes are reported every day. According to experts, many cases remain unreported because rape survivors or their families do not file complaints.

UP, led by Yogi Adityanath and BJP, ranked first among the states with the highest number of atrocities against women, with 59,862 such incidents.

According to the POCSO Act, Uttar Pradesh also has the most crimes against teens, with 7,447 cases.

Rapists in 93.8% of the cases were someone known to the rape victim. In as many as 18,060 cases, the rapists were friends, colleagues, employers, neighbors, or other well-known persons, while in 11,946 cases, the rapists were an online friend.

The National Crime Bureau Records revealed that Uttar Pradesh is one of the major states in the Hindi Heartland- where the situation is the worst in terms of women’s safety.

According to the bureau, 3,80,000 crimes against women were reported in 2018, of which 59,456 cases, the largest number were registered in Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, 4,05,863-this is the number of crimes against women in India in 2019 disclosed by the Criminal Records Bureau’s Crime in India data on September 29. On the same day, Dalit, a 19-year-old girl who was allegedly raped in Uttar Pradesh, died.

Although Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of UP has repeatedly claimed that his government is committed to women’s safety and security, the data presents a different picture.

Every year, due to Atrocities, Several People (especially Women) lose their lives, but politics and the blame-games are still alive and kicking!