4/3/2015 — around 1.30 p.m. — CNN-IBN flashed a number. Kajori Sen said you can call on that number to express your views on a documentary on a rapist. I rang up thrice. The number was ringing but nobody picked it up. I feel calls are pre-recorded and call-in live is a farce. I wanted to say “Rape is a crime and rapist should be punished. Talk of change of mindset is an excuse not to punish rapist. There should be no glorification of crime and criminals. Publication or broadcast or exhibition of an interview of a criminal is glorification of criminal. Showing photograph of a criminal is glorification of criminal. TV channels should not show photographs of criminals. Producer of documentary claimed to be a rape victim. In that case she suffers from something similar to Stockholm Syndrome. There should be a law against glorification of crime and criminals. There are many evil persons who don’t want rapists to be punished. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Instead of directly saying that, they change the discussion to patriarchy, mindset, society, education, and so on. All these are excuses to justify rape and not punish rapists. You don’t hear them say a rapist must be punished. A rapist and murderer should face full punishment even if he is less than 18 years old.”
Times Now said the documentary is voyeurism, not journalism.
Many rapes take place in UK. If the producer wanted to know the mindset of a rapist she should have interviewed a rapist in UK.
Anu Aga is a nominated member of Rajya Sabha. She is not an elected member. Her nomination is unconstitutional as it is not according to Article 80. She did not say rapists should be punished.
If parents of Jyoti Singh Pandey want justice for their daughter they should start chain hunger strike at Jantar Mantar. They should not stop it till all the criminals are hanged. Even after the President rejects mercy petition lawyers like Indira Jaising challenge the rejection and get a stay order from a High Court or Supreme Court. Shame on such lawyers. Going to TV studios is no use. Many journalists on those channels are opposed to death penalty. There is no shame in being a victim. Jyoti Singh Pandey should be called as such and not Nirbhaya or Damini or Amanat. If at all TV channels want to show that photograph they should show the photograph of Jyoti Singh Pandey. When rapists are brought to court their hands and feet should be chained. Their faces should not be covered. Proper punishment for those who raped Jyoti is castration, taking out their intestines and burning them, and hanging. We can bring a law with retrospective effect for that. We should have a law that bans any appeal against President’s rejection of mercy petition and punishment for any lawyer who appeals should be death and President should have power to dismiss judges who admit such petitions.
On NDTV 24×7 Dushyant Dave said discussion on mindset should stop. Rapists come with justifications for their actions.
Government has the right to ban a documentary. Character assassination of a rape and murder victim should not be permitted. It is hypocrisy on the part of TV channels to question the ban when they wanted ban on Honey Singh’s lyrics. Some wanted ban on Grand Masti. Khushboo wanted a ban on Dam 999.
Should all documentaries of the sort necessarily be a glorification of the criminals?
The documentary and such programmes can have terrible impacts on impressionable people and hence should be withheld from such people. But what about adults who would wish to know the mind of the killer for various reasons such as psychological understanding?
In general, such documentaries or programmes may do no good to anyone and hence I endorse keeping them out of public views.