Bihar fake topper Ruby Rai is not the culprit, but the victim

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bihar-fake-topper-ruby-rai-nitish-kumar-bseb-government-jobsbicycle-campaign/story/1/11455.html

In another major embarrassment to the honourable chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, Ruby Rai - a girl from the state and formerly its Class 12 "topper" - has emerged as an icon of the state government's failure. This time it is on another crucial front - education.

During the campaign for Nitish ji last year, among many other things, I spearheaded the "Bicycle Campaign" led by a group of women cyclists in Patna.

These women were mostly the beneficiaries of Nitishji's scheme and used the same bicycles that he gifted them to do door-to-door campaign for him.

I had seen a generation of my own neighbourhood friends in village not go to school because it was far off and thus was not safe for women to travel.

I only wished they could continue because with time, I lost most of them - to marriages. They were married off and had kids in a year or two. With little to talk in common, we drifted.

So, when Nitishji started the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana in Bihar, I was supremely happy. Bicycle for millions of Bihari girls became a symbol of pride, freedom and an instrument to succeed in life.

Riding on it, confidently whizzing past the aaris (gaps between fields), girls had started going to school. I smiled each time I saw girls on the bicycle thinking they were symbolic of a generation set free.

But today, when I see Ruby Rai reduced to a joke on mainstream and social media, I feel pained. I feel sorry for a "system" that could not keep up.

I feel embarrassed at our collective failure, which even in its expression of addressing the concern, reflects a lynch mentality.

I cannot see Ruby at fault when she said yesterday, "I merely wanted to pass, not to top."

I do not see her as the culprit for she is a victim. And I cannot see her character being lynched so brazenly for she must already be so embarrassed and so singled out that I fear Ruby will lose her mind.

I share the same sociocultural reality as her. I am a Bihari woman who has lived a major part of my life in rural Bihar. So, I know how much agency she would have had earlier in deciding her fate. I also know what she must have been going through now after being reduced to a "fake" in the eyes of the world she comes from.

When one of my distant buas sang beautiful Sanskrit shlokas in front of my newly-wed mother, my mother requested her father to send her to school for formal education.

Also read - With such rotten education, Bihar toppers' ignorance expected

My grandfather refused flatly and said, "Ekra padh likh ke commissioner bane la to he na. Baad me chulha hi foonktai. Bas chitthi patri bhar seekh jaaye, bahut hai. (She does not need to be a commissioner. Ultimately she has to cook and clean. She should have basic literacy to be able to read and write letters)."

This story did not end with that generation. My own friends from village did not study much. Not because they could not but because they were not allowed to.

In the age of a changed marriage market scenario now, mere housework was not guarantee of a "suitable" marital alliance. Now grooms demanded education certificates or "degrees".

However, acquiring degrees and gaining real education do not fit the order of the day in a highly casteist and patriarchal society of Bihar.

Besides, girl education is meant to serve either of the twin purposes in my state - get any kind of government job and/or marry another government employee. There is no reason why a procured degree cannot fulfil this purpose.

In perfect collusion with the local administration, degrees have been churned at fixed rates with proper seal and signatures from education officials in the state.

In this context, are we being fair to Ruby?

Is it fair to single her out and point solitary fingers at her? Is it justified that those who are operating this "system" enjoy the daily dose of sarcasm and laughter at her expense?

Does Nitishji know how many Shiksha Mitras in Bihar who teach these students have genuine degrees? Does his education department know which universities in Bihar do not furnish illegal degrees?

Does Bihar administration not know the authenticity of the degree, before appointing employees in its system at lower levels?

The answers are all in affirmative. And sadly, that is where the problem is.

Bihar suffers from an epidemic of cheating to get on with education. Knowledge has gradually slipped away from the priority list of our system.

From a state which has one of the highest rates of teachers' absenteeism cases, what is the incentive of the students to come to school? How is Ruby responsible for knowing what to write on Tulsidas then?

Even if Ruby is punished and penalised, what do we achieve? Does her punishment prove a point about a brilliant system in Bihar? Does it absolve us of a collective sin?

Does it break the nexus between the system and the subject? And most importantly, does it assure that girls will be allowed to go out and study?

It is ironic that in the noise and din to "nab the culprit" in haste, symbolic lives have been butchered while the system stays on unrepentant.

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bihar-fake-topper-ruby-rai-nitish-kumar-bseb-government-jobsbicycle-campaign/story/1/11455.html

Nitish ji, why does Bihar Police name rape victims and not stop crime?

http://www.catchnews.com/national-news/nitish-kumar-ji-why-is-bihar-police-naming-rape-victims-instead-of-stopping-crime-1467105103.html

 On 24 June, I wrote an open letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressing my anguish over the growing number of crimes against women in the state. I am from Bihar and had worked a communication consultant for Kumar during the last Assembly elections and I'm deeply disturbed by his inaction.

Three days later, Bihar Police chose to respond to my letter via a Facebook post.

Sadly their first response was to disclose the name of the rape victim, which was picked up by the local media. What followed was a hasty and shoddy attempt at damage control, wherein Bihar police deleted the post, and published an edited response.

Before I present a point-by-point rebuttal to their insensitive post, let me thank the Bihar government for taking cognizance of the letter. Let me also point out in the same breath that the insensitive response - both in content and form - cements my view thatjungle raaj has returned to my state.

I think the Nitish Kumar government's official response to rape cases in Bihar are:

1. Insensitive: By resorting to a public announcement - they turned a heinous crime into a routine administrative process. By mentioning monetary compensation in the name of relief, the state has shown it has scant regard for this emotionally, physically and mentally damaging subject.

My letter, though a political instrument, was an emotional outburst, written on behalf of hundreds of JD (U) women workers and is reflective of the collective angst of Bihari women. Instead of taking aggressive affirmative action to boost security for women, they have limited themselves to bureaucratic drudgery. Is Bihar government under the illusion that the solution to rape is monetary compensation or that merely registering cases of rape are enough? Is this what the Bihar model has been reduced to?

2.Incorrect, irrelevant data: The police letter quotes NCRB data from 2015 to show that Bihar has become comparatively 'safer' for women.

Considering there is dearth of basic security and safety, and that the number of cases of rape and molestation have shot up since the Nitish government came into power in 2015, that claim is ironic. My letter picked up alarming anecdotes from the month of June 2016 alone. In this context, how is this 2015 data relevant?

Forget about common women of the state or my friends or family, when JD(U) female workers call me and tell me, 'aap awaaz uthaiye, hum saamne se bol bhi nahi sakte' (speak on our behalf, because we can't), I feel helpless, enraged. I feel as wronged as they do. I feel as humiliated as they do. Will Nitish ji explain which data captures this fear, this angst and this helplessness among his own cadre?

3. Diverting attention: Not only is Bihar government chest thumping on a year old inaccurate data, they're resorting to cheap political gimmickry by comparing numbers from other states' NCRB data. Are women in Bihar supposed to feel safe just because other states have worse track record? This sort of comparison shows nothing but intellectual bankruptcy by the Nitish Kumar government.

4. Blind-siding the real issue: A gender-sensitive government and leader wouldn't dare claim "reported versus non-reported" cases to justify inaction like the Nitish Kumar government did when they pleaded ignorance of a particular case because it was not 'reported.'

Isn't it a known fact that not all cases of exploitation are promptly reported? Are they saying there are no instances of unreported crime in the state? In a country such as ours, there are socio-political taboos responsible for non-reporting of cases of crimes against women. Shouldn't Nitish sarkaar take responsibility for this grossly unrealistic interpretation that just because a case went unreported, crime doesn't exist in the state?

Does Bihar government really feel that a gangraped woman is in a frame of mind to deal with the trauma of 'reporting' the abduction of her daughters after her brutal rape? Did the government take any suo moto cognizance of that heart rending case? If it did, can it publicly announce the progress, therein? If it did not, would it explain why?

The official response in another rape case quotes medical reports claiming that the private parts of a survivor had not been mutilated. Let me remind Nitish ji that this is a mere 'perspective' from the government medical fraternity. As a woman, I counter that only the survivor can and should testify if her private parts have been mutilated or not. If not herself, a female member of her family should officially claim and/or approve and/or disapprove of the government's position.

We all know that official medical responses are highly manipulative and manageable. A brief conversation with any government medical professional in Patna will explain how politics often supercedes genuine medical opinion and influences the final reports.

By blaming the media for misreporting and falsely claiming that cases are 'made up', the government has further created a dent in the public-leadership connect. As a female journalist from Bihar, I thank my colleagues for reporting whatever information the stringer network churns. But as a reporter myself, I feel physically threatened. By gagging the fourth estate of our democracy through official proclamations , the government has issued an undeclared emergency.

The 'system' has used the state machinery for a long time to build a societal wall for a survivor to feel humiliated, threatened and even discouraged from discussing crimes of exploitation. In this case too, I fear that this official statement from the police may have broken the confidence and will power of the survivor to report the crime. Since the case has attracted nation-wide outrage in the media, the women of Bihar deserve justice. The arguments made by Bihar police on Nitish ji's behalf reek of misogyny, a hastily put-together 'research', political motivation and an administrative lethargy to report truth as it stands.

My letter to Nitish ji traced a very personal journey of not just me as an individual, but of the women in the state. It was a letter of spontaneous emotional outburst which came from my own personal journey from fear to strength to brutal betrayal - a journey gone wrong. To quote from my first letter, 'women in the state including myself feel that Nitish ji used 50% of Bihar's population - its women - simply as vote banks. Today, looking at the state of affairs, we feel cheated and betrayed. Due to the inaction of the government and its alliance with RJD, our worst fears have been proved right.

As a citizen of Bihar, I appeal to Nitish Kumar, the state government and the administrative machinery to not further politicise this issue, or deepen this feeling of emotional disconnect which the women of state feel for their once-favorite political leader.

We have shifted our allegiance and have been forced to embrace fear over something as abhorrent as rape.

http://www.catchnews.com/national-news/nitish-kumar-ji-why-is-bihar-police-naming-rape-victims-instead-of-stopping-crime-1467105103.html

Dear Nitish Kumar, regards, a disheartened daughter of Bihar

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bihar-minor-rape-nitish-kumar-rjd-sexual-violence-crime-against-women/story/1/11363.html

Dear Nitishji,

I felt like writing to you for some time. But something stopped me. Perhaps I was fighting my own conscience. How do I confront the same man I campaigned for? But today, I need to break my own barriers.

I hail from Nalanda - your district. I have met you many times at cultural celebrations in the district. Recently, I worked for you as a communication consultant much against the wishes of my parents and my family. I patiently and silently celebrated the number of likes and shares and followers and retweets on your social media profiles which you so snidely derided as a mere chidiya, sometime back.

But today, like scores of other Bihari women, I feel cheated, robbed and helpless. Today I feel enraged, inflamed, hurt, helpless, extremely angry and very emotional. I am angry with myself. You might be interested in knowing why for I represent 50 per cent of your vote bank.

On June 23, a 10-year old girl was gangraped in Bihar. The very same day, a 21-year-old was raped at gunpoint and her private parts were mutilated with a pistol and wooden sticks. The suffering of the girl and the brutality of the crime led to comparisons with the Nirbhaya episode in Delhi. These might seem like one of those rare cases for an Indian state, Nitish babu. But let me take you through the incidents in this month alone.

On June 10, a man was killed for resisting and protesting the rape of his wife. On June 5, two daughters of a gangraped woman were abducted in Nawada. On June 2, a girl was raped in front of her brother at Madhaura in Bihar. On the same day, another rape was reported by a girl who was abducted and gangraped months ago. Remember, this is just half of June.

Nitishji, I was 12 years old when I was molested in a crowded bus by an adult from a specific caste. You might know which one and why I even mention the caste angle. But in this age of political correctness, let me say it for you and for my readers - because he had proudly proclaimed, "Jab Laluji gaddi par, to Yadavan ke kaahe ke dar". This was when I shouted amidst tears that I will lodge a police complaint.

My family decided when I was 14 or 15 that I should move out and I did - perhaps never to return.

But I did. I came back to work in the state for the state. My parents were happy, I was happy. You made us feel that we could lodge police complaints and that prompt action would be taken. You rebuilt that lost trust in the "system". I was thankful to you. Women across the state thanked you.

This adulation was not random and whimsical Nitishji. It was a thought over gesture built on concrete evidence and lived realities. It was a voice of your support. It was a way of telling you - keep doing the good work, we trust you completely. And you do know what I am talking about, don't you?

There was an air of threat and an air of insecurity even in the state capital, forget about districts far away from Patna, before you came to power the first time.

Even men did not feel safe in the state. We had forgotten to laugh in mirth openly. People avoided travel plans at night. Mothers were constantly praying till fathers returned from work if it was past dusk.

En masse migration of talent happened. All small and big successful businesses wound up. Professors left to teach in universities other than the state. Scenes of organised violence and fear in Gangs of Wasseypurseem normal to all of us in Bihar who grew up in the '90s, for it was normal and you do know that, don't you?

But things changed after you came in. For women like me, you fulfilled a dream. I could now have coffee in open spaces in Patna. I could roam around aimlessly, talk to strangers on the street and feel at home.

I could travel in crowded buses, fighting and conquering my inner demons. I could breathe in Bihar, Nitishji.

From a woman who had goosebumps when I moved out of the Hai Complex office for the first day at work in Patna because it was 8pm and I was never that late on Patna's streets while growing up to become a woman who confidently returned home at 3am all alone by the end of the campaign, it was a self assuring journey - both personal and political. 

But today Nitishji, that trust stands shattered. Women like me feel hurt, cheated and let me not beat around the bush, we feel molested and raped. You do know what I am talking about, don't you?

In every pre-election rally, you passionately appealed to the mothers and sisters of Bihar to vote for you. You said, "Go and vote on the election-day, first. Don't cook before you vote."

Women voted. And you also know that women stood rock solid behind you even while their own men protested your political moves. Women made you win. We trusted you. We felt we were safe and will continue to be safe till you are around.

I will share an anecdote here. I remember that in Madhubani, during the campaign, while I was staying at a friend's place, my friend's mother - a doctor married to an RSS swayamsevak, went out and voted for you much against the wishes of her husband. Do you know why? I will quote her for you: "Vote bhijua hota hai. Kya pata achha hi ho. Nitishji ne theek kaam kiya hai. Ek mauka aur deke dekhte hain."

Since, I worked with the Mahila Prakoshth of your party, Nitishji, I assume the voice of those women who might not have the advantages that I have to air their opinions in English and even in Hindi on national platforms. I assume this voice because this article is written after due consultation with more than a dozen women in your own party and more than hundreds in your state - some known very closely to you.

We all feel cheated. We feel as if we were taken for a ride. We feel as if we continue to remain your vote banks and nothing else. We fell for your raksha bandhan rhetoric in election rallies. We fell for the façade of this partial liquor ban to woo our en masse vote. Alcohol ban is a sham, Nitishji, if you could not flex your bureaucratic muscles in reining those that are more inebriated from power than by country made liquor.

Each woman who is looked at lasciviously by an emboldened man feels that your political manipulation molested her. Each teenage girl whose family decides to not let her stay in the state curses you for taking them for a ride. Each young woman entrepreneur who felt she could return and start something of her own for the state feels raped of choices in your new reign.

Nitishji, you were elected not for your social philosophy and your political revolutionary theories - Lalu fulfilled enough of that by giving the so-called voice to the voiceless. Scores of women oblivious to socialist theories voted for you because women wanted change. We wanted some peace - nothing else, for we knew that as Bihari women, we will handle everything else. We will build, rebuild, innovate, figure out, adjust and celebrate.

But you have taken us for a ride. You have cheated all of us. You have reduced us to a mere box on your checklist that you need to tick and "check" during the meticulous crafting your political strategies.

I am enraged at myself, I am livid at my stupidity and am aghast at your pretence.

A disheartened daughter of Bihar

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bihar-minor-rape-nitish-kumar-rjd-sexual-violence-crime-against-women/story/1/11363.html