“(Shiney Ahuja) is completely shattered and is repenting for what he had done, Assistant Police Commissioner Dilip Suryavanshi told reporters” The Hindu, June 18th, 2009. How terribly pitiable! This description of a regretful Shiney forces the cruelty of the crime out of our minds, even if for a moment, and revives the image of the remorseful husband in Bhool Bhulaiya. It becomes tough to picture this ‘gentleman’ as a criminal, when we know him from characters such as the one he donned in Gangster in which a criminal is portrayed as a modern day Romeo.
From one of the world’s most popular boxers to an Academy Award winning director, sexual assaults and rapes have become just another sizzling scandal in the glamorous lives of celebrities. And the victim? If she is a semi-celebrity or even remotely connected to a hot shot, then she shares as much attention (probably a tad lower) as the accused. If not, and happens to be one of the lesser fortunate nannies or maids, her character is analysed by ‘experts’, the trial period is filled with field trips to the police station and the court, and well, end of story. Ah yes, very traumatic and perhaps her life gets ruined in the process, but that is secondary, not exciting enough for prime time viewers. Unfortunately the people seem to be shocked because of who the accused is not because how brutal the crime is.
After serving three years of his six years prison term for sexual assault, Mike Tyson “engaged in a series of comeback fights” in his boxing career. Madhur Bhandarkar went on to make his biggest hits, after the model turned actor Preeti Jain unintentionally boosted his popularity by accusing him of being in the casting couch. Ironically one of his hits was Page 3 which brought out the casting couch trend in Bollywood. Anand Jon did get convicted but still the fashion designer is yet to be sentenced five months since the judgement. And the victims? Well, the media has other pressing issues to cover, the activists stumble upon something bigger in no time, the people’s memory is short and all of us have things to do. It sure was entertaining to debate the celebrity’s flaws, Shakespearean style, but there is a whole list of other celebrities waiting.
In a majority of the celebrity rape cases, the rapist is usually acquitted, or gets sentenced to a minimum term. Putting oneself in the shoes of someone who has to deliver a judgement, one can imagine how difficult it is to be tough on one’s favourite star. Even if sentenced, he seems to rarely serve the full term as in the case of Tyson. The Delhi High Court took about seven years to acquit Manu Sharma, the convict in the Jessica Lal case but the Supreme Court convicted him in 25 days after the prosecution challenged the judgement. This is a classic case which proves that with the power of popularity supplemented by money, oodles of it, there seem to be no hassles in committing a crime, other than perhaps the boredom of courtroom proceedings.
It is highly frustrating (not shocking) that our focus is on all the wrong aspects and the wrong people. Why doesn’t the cruelty of rape jerk us? Instead of viewing the case of celebrity rapes as an opportunity to send a warning to the society by meting out the severest of punishments, we further propagate the idea that rape is fun and is not that bad an affair if caught when money’s there to bail one out!
What is more shocking is that usually in cases like these, the wives or girlfriends of the accused, be it Victoria Beckham or Anupam Ahuja, declare their unconditional support for their darling boys. They should have been the first to denounce the accused and turn their backs on them. Though their intentions for standing by their husbands might be different, to the ‘conventional’ wife this might seem to reflect the need for women to stick to their husbands no matter what. After all, throughout their lives they are reminded by their parents, teachers and the society that they should stand by their men, come what may and are conditioned to feel insecure and forced into a quagmire of illusionary love and trust. It also projects another dangerous trend of accepting rape as a common, unavoidable mistake that men commit because they are men!
The industry to which the person belongs should get together and refuse to give him a place in it. The society should reject him. The media should of course do its job; any news about a celebrity is big. But it would help if it took the right angle and discussed the various loopholes in legally trying a celebrity, rather than replay stills from his movies and track his successful or not so successful career. Media pressure in the past has challenged court verdicts favouring the celebrities and has brought about historic turns in cases such as in the case of Priyadarshini Mattoo. However, such incidents remain sporadic. If these celebrity rapists go scot free with the whole world watching, it does not require an analyst to conclude that the ‘ordinary rapist’ has a better chance of escaping the law, not that the law has something severe in store for him. Especially in a country like India where cricket players and actors are treated like Gods, emulated, cited as examples and their life experiences dropped all over the place, should we not send a strong message to the common man and make him wet his pants at the thought of being caught for rape?
Pic Source: NDTV website
The Author Janani’s fascination for Economics landed her in a BA Economics course at Stella Maris College, Chennai and she is currently in her final year. After a long internal conflict she has acknowledged her passion for writing and deciding to pursue this passion for life, she is now an aspiring journalist. To sustain the momentum she freelances and at times just blogs on her mind as she gazes at the world from a speeding train or her bedroom window. When she is not writing she is either curled up with a book or is in the middle of a debate. She believes that reporting is one strong way to create an active citizenry and is all set to prove it.
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Totally true, Janani! It’s quite a quandary for the wife, huh? She’s damned if she stands by the guy, and damned if she doesn’t! And the victim is damned anyway:( The only one who isn’t quite so affected is the poor man who was helpless against his urges. Bah!
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The patriarchial society of ours has seldom been considerate to women particulartyl when it comes to the question of chastity. I remember a case of a woman raped by the father inlaw and the man went free and what was worse was the village tribunal ordered the woman to live with the father in law because she had become the wife of the man!! These are only a few of those shocking stories that make it to the media and there are innumerable number of them which dont and like you said the media is too busy “breaking the news” it has no time or sponsorship to follow any of them. We will remember Mr.Ahuja till we get another celebrity involved in the same despicable act!
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admin Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at
Thanks for the comment. You might find this article, Scapegoat(http://www.savadati.com/2009/01/29/195/) interesting.
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Agree with the points raised in this article.
But are we not jumping the gun here? There is a trial left in this case beyond which is the judgement.
Recently I happened to read about another case – but this is a man being wronged by his wife. Tamil actor Prashanth had a long drawn legal battle with his wife. She did not want to live with him and nor did she give him a divorce. Initially people thought the problem was with Prashanth (him being a celebrity and all) – then slowly the truth came out. The girl was already married to another guy and not divorced. It was then that the court declared Prashanth’s marriage with this girl as null and void. The battle continues now for the custody of their child. Prashanth career in the meanwhile has hit its nadir.
Long story short, celebrities receive the rough end of the stick as well just for being celebrities.
So let us not deride them at the first opportunity. I am not condoning rape by a celebrity – I am just saying give the man a chance before shooting him down.
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@ Nayantara : It is pathetic. The feeling you get when you walk down a dark alley, every woman is subject to that. I dread coming home late, as much as I love staying out after dark. Darkness or daylight, ordinary man or celebrity, makes no difference.
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Titus Reply:
July 20th, 2009 at
you are a nyctophobe.. so dont lie..
as far as the topic is concerned, I being a normal male human feel people like Shiney Ahuja shouldnt be allowed to hold on to their masculinity.. *snip snip*
“It also projects another dangerous trend of accepting rape as a common, unavoidable mistake that men commit because they are men!”
and thank you for the usual male bashing. That rape has been a used as a method to subjugate women is true.. and it still exists in many places.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8107039.stm
But still, do you have to make statements like that? Statements like that only alienate sensible men.
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@ Jayakumar : Like the gen of fast food, it is the gen of fast news. Break the news, analyse it in all angles, most of them unnecessary and then break another news, end of story. Can rather shoot a thriller, the way they sensationalize the whole thing with background music and absolutely unconnected people screaming vague things into the mike. Considering the power the media has, especially today, it is frustrating to look at the way they put it to use.
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@ Kalki : What about statements like, “if there was sex, it was consensual.” Yeah right, he just forgot if he did have sex or not. True, a criminal is not going to accept the crime. Nobody’s shooting him down. THAT is the problem. Yes, I sound moved by emotions. I assure you I am applying my objective thinking here.
He is getting the rough end of the stick too? He better be getting it. Trials go on forever, we all know this. And even after the judgement is arrived at, where does it leave the victim?
I am not jumping to conclusions about his crime, I do not have the facts of the case in hand, it could be fabricated. But if the media wants to give it so much of attention, at least let it do it right.
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The issue of celebrity scandals has been discussed a lot these days.But what I really dont understand is the celebrity spouse’s stand on these issues. I totally agree with your views, Janani. Once a cheater, always a cheater! Celebrity or otherwise, a cheater should not be supported at all by the family. Coz in most of the cases, these men happen to be not mere husbands alone, but fathers too…
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And another point I’d like to raise…
as far as coverage of the incident, would you like it if the woman’s information is repeated again and again?
I’d rather think she deserves privacy. Why continue highlighting her plight? it only adds to everything.
And with regard to his wife standing by him, I think it should be the person’s choice. I’d personally sever ties and denounce the person, but it is her choice, and we shouldnt judge her..
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@ Titus : Perhaps I am a nyctophobe because of the very same reason.
I appreciate the fact that you feel so strongly about men who victimise women.
But I fail to understand how the statement you pointed out will alienate sensible men?
I think you will understand the statement if you keep aside the assumption that all this is but mere male bashing. This portal is for people to discuss, share , think and talk about issues that go way beyond “male bashing”.
As far as the coverage of the incident goes, I did not mean that the victim needs to be given celebrity status and every minute of her life followed henceforth. But what I meant was, she should not be treated as a mere ‘news creator’. For many of these women, who become victims of rape, life become extremely difficult and they get into a trauma. The family, various human rights and women rights organisations and the law should ensure that she is helped to lead a normal life and the media obviously has a huge role to play in this.
And the wife – I agree it is her personal choice , I was only highlighting the magnitude of the implication it has on the society.
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