Open Letter to Mr Kapil Sibal

 

This open letter is addressed to Mr Kapil Sibal, who is representing his clients, the Mighty Govt. of West Bengal with regard to the R@*E AND MU*#ER of Abhaya at her work place, the very hospital where she was a resident doctor on a 36 hr long shift on 9 Aug, 2024.

Dear Mr. Kapil Sibal, 

As a fellow citizen, I write to you in disdain after witnessing how you have represented your client at the Supreme Court the other day and was left appalled and aghast. The whole proceedings had been made public and live for all, by the Honourable Chief Justice of India, I believe in order to restore the public's faith in the Judiciary system of the country. Justice Chandrachund attempted to put forth all of the questions that so many of us working women, doctors and public in general have had in our minds for so long. However I was so agonized to see your unpreparedness and apathy that was so clear by your cool demeanor and inability to answer even essential questions like the time of the first FIR filed so many harrowing hours after the ghastly incident at R. G. Kar Hospital and Medical College. 

Your apathy was evident when you smiled at a question from the CJ and your fellow colleague had to remind you, "a girl's life was lost and please don't atleast laugh... ". 

Let me also remind you about how I and the rest of the womankind of this country have been left outraged, let down, helpless, petrified and in anguish the last couple of weeks. I was shocked to note how casually you were fumbling while refuting vehemently all of the opposition lawyer's claims about how many errors and mismanagement of the initial action, communications lapses, failure of protecting the crime scene, etc. were pointed out. 

The nature of this crime is so absolutely outrageous perhaps, us the women of this country have miserably failed in making you folk, sensitized to the pain of it. How grievous the nature of this crime is, may be unknown to you but it has shaken the core of us women - how our body is considered like flesh and meat and our modesty - a snack for predators. 

Incidentally and much to our chagrin, you client and several other state governments went on to immediately adopt the conventional metrics like imposing more and more restrictions on our working hours, duty duration and preferred hours of work. It is such a shame that none of the people of your kind (the kind that trivializes such heinous crimes) thought about ways to improve work place safety and dignity for women. Your first chains come to bind our arms and curtail our freedom in all respects - freedom to wear what we feel comfortable in, work where we want to, commute to and from work fearlessly, eat what we want, find a gender sensitized set of colleagues to work with, who respect us for our abilities and work, be amongst men who see us beyond flesh/meat or toys or commodities, be amongst men who will hear us out before telling us to "calm down" or gas light us or make nasty jokes behind us, see and watch advertisements that do not objectify us and our bodies, find free help from mental healthcare professionals for victims and their families, an ideal world where children will only be born out of consent and where men will never dare to touch any woman or girl or animal without consent or be violent with them knowing that such action would land them in consequences that would be instant, inevitable and painful, and so on. You failed to suggest any valid working plan to better the gender sensitization in the country. 

For the intellectual they say you are, the least you could have done is suggest for an action plan with corrective and affirmative actions that your clients could work upon setting up and comply. That my dear friend, would have felt right, just and would have instilled some faith. Making sure the women workforce got designated, maintained toilets, rest and washrooms at all Government offices and hospitals, setting up a PoSH Team in every organization and compliance audits, ways to hold perpetrators accountable and workplace punishments like no promotions for those against whom there are sexual molestation/harrassment complaints, bringing better quality workforce that is gender sensitized, educational videos for children in secondary schools, sex education for teenage kids as part of college education, SOPs for registering complaints with respect to sexual crimes against women/girls , it's implementation/compliance audits, etc? These are stuff of dreams for us while you trivialize our plight.

In your fumble game at the Apex Court of the country, you have disgraced the solemnity of the situation, your profession, the judiciary, thereby tax payers' money and to the lawyer community at large. Had I been in your position, I would AT LEAST remember the chronological order and timings of certain key events post the discovery of the crime site and the victim's body. I also read about the resolution passed under your leadership on behalf of the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association). You had the gall to call the R@pe of a young doctor on duty as a "symptomatic malaise" and suggest that such incidents are commonplace! Do you have any conscience left?! 

Your casual approach felt insulting to say the least to the thousands of lakhs of women in this country and our everyday struggles with sexism, discrimination, work place harrassment, lack of a level playing field, capacity building and career growth opportunities, freedom from pregnancy discrimination, harrassment at home, at school and in public places, lack of respectful and conducive environment, lack of decision making roles & board room opportunities where they can make a difference for generations of women after us, etc. despite our best efforts in Nation building and yearning for Humanity to thrive and not just survive. 

While grappling with the current status quo of our emotions, we continue to read about countless other horrific tragedies day after day pushing us all into the dark depth of a vicious unrecoverable mourning period. 

Mr. Sibal, please for God's sake indulge yourself in reading the headlines of the last two weeks' news daily of your choice. The least we should be offerred now is JUSTICE not your patronizing words/insensitive resolutions. Next time, before your appearance, show some respect and dignity to the lost life and do your homework. The life, whose (unlike yours that strives to protect the guilty criminals) would have served thousands of ailing patients of this Nation. 

JUSTICE IS THE LEAST YOU CAN OFFER US. 

P. S. About the rest - forget it, your community's calibre proceeds you! We know how even after 32 years you failed to get justice for Bhanwari Devi, thanks to whom we even have a PoSH Act today.