The Political Exploitation of Dead Bodies
Rajat Mitra provides a detailed explanation about rape being a heinous crime that is closely related to the predator-prey interactions from which we originated. The rapist can acquire complete control over the victim and bypass all of the safeguards that keep a modern society secure. That is civil society gets mobilised and want rapists to face the death penalty.
The recent despicable crime committed in RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, is no exception. It is generating huge protests across India and also globally. The most relevant was the call for an apolitical movement Reclaim the Night on 14th August. The core objective was to seek justice for the departed soul and better social security of women without any political affiliation.
It is true that the social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp played a vital role towards ensuring that large number of common citizens participated in the protests. The rest i.e. the Facebook bloggers, YouTubers, politicians and their corresponding political parties, reporters, news media etc. are relentlessly striving, through the same social media platforms, to achieve their respective financial and/or political goals through a mix of half truths, misinformation and disinformation. Those with genuine initiatives, to portray the right perspectives, will be lost in the quagmire of fake information leaving the common citizens baffled and confused. The opposition parties will not loose any opportunity to create pressure on the ruling party. The politicisation of dead bodies due to rape, rail accidents, riots etc. can potentially provide significant mileages to parties and individuals with vested interests.
Political parties use dead bodies as active symbols that have the power to reshape collective memory, impact contemporary political debate, and dominate society narratives, rather than only as historical artefacts. They can exploit to mobilize voter base, create political narratives, divert attention, calls for legislative actions as a showcase of their commitment to reform, exploit racial or cultural dimensions to deepen societal divides, engage in victimization politics where they portray themselves as defenders of victims' rights while simultaneously using the victims' stories to further their political agendas.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta further elaborates some of the above mentioned aspects in his article where he discusses how on the top of the alleged cover-up or incompetence, politicisation is added to a political pantomime.
The brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, has sparked widespread protests. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the case. But despite the demands for justice, the politicisation of the case threatens to inflict a double indignity on the victim. There is always a danger that justice might not be done, or the full facts do not come to light. But there is a nauseating indignity we have heaped on the victim by already instrumentalising the case. Even in death, she has become an instrument of political agendas, ideological world views, ulterior purposes and partisan bickering. The individual’s dignity has been once again extinguished.In the
same article, Pratap Bhanu Mehta makes us aware of the following limitations of mass protests.
1. Protest against rapes are entangled with significant fault lines of class, caste and location. Metro cities will have obvious privileges.
2. Protests need focal point for action. Most of the times it is demand for a new law. A movement to enact new legislation is simple. Creating persistent political pressure to alter the judiciary or police so that they can deliver justice is nearly impossible. On this question, not a single vote is cast.
3. The obdurate reality of a distinct sort of politicisation, where women's bodies are merely political instruments even in death, confronts even serious protest movements. Rape, whether it is being used to elude justice or to advocate for it, always serves as a political tool. The odour of a culture that instrumentalises human dignity, even in the wake of a horrific crime, will endure even if, by chance, legal justice is served.
#Politics #Humanity #Rape #Politicisation #PoliticalInstrument #DeadBody #PoliticalParties #Crime #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India
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