So where did the ‘Great Guwahati Molestation’ theatricals eventually play out to? Stirred in the backdrop of some diabolical perversions, outrage, conspiracies and cultural predicament, did we all end up dancing to the same old farce of despondency?
Beyond the natural widespread indignation rallied around those shocking, disturbing visuals of a young girl being gang-molested in the middle of stark public eyes, there unveiled a much larger issue of Assamese socio-cultural doldrums that all of us have grown up into but seldom confronting on face. Before I could point fingers at others, let me start with my own case. I had learned about this despicable event taken place at the heart of my home town much before national media fireballed into the scene, courtesy a friend’s FB updates. I didn’t bother to explore much on it as the common ‘Assamese’ impression, on numerous such past stories of Live News ‘sensationalization’, has been of frivolous in nature. There were a dozen other incidents in the past of similar distaste where Live cameras captured and ballyhooed, but never really achieved anything other than ending up in satirical friend circle chatters like ours. Had it not been for my lingering wasted evening hours here in the US those days with NDTV website being a daily routine browse, I wouldn’t have been exposed and driven to the true magnitude of ignominy and outrage the incident carried. This explains the first thing about our socio-cultural mindset conflict: We ‘liberal’ Assamese (taking the liberty to generalize on my own behalf) just don’t take our local media and more importantly local issues seriously, unless, of course the issues are considered good enough to be hyped in the national front. And there are good reasons as to the pretext of such a mindset: Firstly, the never ending anecdote of killings, bloodshed and controversies we all have innately grown up with, has perhaps in a way made us an indifferent (to socio-political problems) lot at large. Secondly, the credibility of sensationalizing local news media has always been at stake, right since the days of ‘Pratidin’ to the more recent evolution of 24 by 7 live news channels. Hence, its not at all surprising not to see immediate public outcry in Assam over the whole issue (well they eventually had to budge, as an entire nation fumed).
So now since NDTV (and subsequently all other major satellite channels) decided to prime time the incident in Guwahati, it caught my attention and ushered in a warrant for deeper introspection vis-à-vis some disturbing facts. In the televised debates, everyone condemning the incident (which all humane souls naturally will) questioned the increasing defunct of social and moral values in the State. Stats suggest recent rate of crimes against women in the State stands doubled compared to that of rest of the country. Now this shocked and upset me to the core. Well, traditionally the impression in the mainstream India about North east and its culture has always been overwhelming as far as socio-cultural liberalization is concerned. The issues that cripple most of the country like dowry, communal violence etc never ever managed to leave a blemish on the faces of us 7 sisters. I, in fact, have always maintained to brag about this liberal and ‘westernized cool’ image of ours in front of my North and South Indian friends elsewhere. But if we were so liberal and forward thinking (where curses like dowry don’t even exist), how could women atrocities stand so high? All this while I kept believing its just Delhi and its surrounding UP desperados behind all the ignominies meted out to the women of the country (be it rape, molestation or even incest). But today whole of my misconstrued ideology seems to have gone for a toss. The disturbing facts, questions and the moral condemnations telecast in the shows, pushed me towards an introspective ride albeit an epiphany of some harsh realities.
Alright, I concede the existence and prevalence of pervert syndromes in the backyard of my own, hitherto so believed, ‘progressive’ society. And in the tone of million others, I echo the same (by now clichéd) decree of deterrent punishment and social embargo for the perpetrators. But isn’t the idea of social boycott a paradox in itself? Do we first of all have a socio-cultural value driven consensus on incidents like these in Assam?
Without going into the conspiracy theories, one thing stands clear that the whole molestation saga had more than incontrollable testosterone levels inscribed in its storyline. A righteous mob disposition, questionnaires like ‘Are you a student?’ ‘ You have taken alcohol huh?’ and unethical disclosures of the girl’s identity (the whole footage for that matter) - all led to the larger apathy of a hypocrite & confused society caught in the cross fire of liberalization and cultural values. This is to explain the genesis behind the ‘righteous’ mob crusade as well as an equally detrimental rationale behind a silent civil society. Assam, especially Guwahati, for years has been strangled in the constant dilemma of modernization vs cultural value perseverance. Time and again, from eminent scholars to indigenous groups like AASU, have created more and more confusions on the ideological blueprint of our day to day socio-cultural norms. Yes with globalization pervading an air of change in the rest of the country for decades (viz. through cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad) we too received some flakes of it in the name of pubs, dance floors, CCDs and the KFCs, but sans the true empowerment in terms of exposure and liberalization per se. While Guwahati simply dwelled on the commercial corollaries of globalization when the actual essence stayed with rest of India, the city was inadvertently left in the barracks of a much aggravated socio-cultural predicament. Where on one end an outgoing new generation attempted to relish the changing ‘globalization’ induced values and norms, on the other end the cultural ‘messiahs’ (ironically comprising youth) stayed stubborn on these rather ‘hollow’ western culture shocks. Now just take out the whole molestation episode from the video and envision only the interview part of the girl – A student from class 11, coming out of a bar at 9:30 PM (in provoking enough outfit too). Throw it off at the face of the society and count the no. of endorsements certifying the girl’s demeanor. The ‘lunatic’ mob, along with the majority of a ‘tolerant’ society sadly share a common ground here as far as morality on certain social values goes. The thin line of hypocrisy separating the two lies miserably on this crude distinction - Whilst one degrades further on its own distorted moral creed (turning vigilante, molesters etc), the other remains firm silently on values of equal perversion. Yes probably she’s too young to be visiting bars as yet (mind you the legal drinking age is 18 in Assam), yes she is indeed foul mouthed (which you think is a taboo whereas boys since class 5-6 master the words) and yes she perhaps binged till the brink. The moral judgmental bandwagon of both sides simply fails to roll beyond these cultural ‘misconducts’. Ask a parent. Ask a commoner. Or in fact ask the same News channel editors (read Zarir Hussain and Atanu Bhuyan). Had molestation angle not ensued that night, the whole coverage (and the subsequent moral crucifixion) would’ve focused on the plight of the cultureless ‘drunk’, ‘foul mouthed’ assamese youth (worse girls)!
Even hypothetically believing the girl was under aged for legal drinks, the undertow of morality tends to simply stress on the philosophy of expose` and vilification of juvenile perpetrators, without pointing a finger at the fundamental depraved facilitators of our highly flawed system (which unlawfully serves liquors to minors at the first place).
Now finally lets turn on to the much proclaimed social justice the news channel said to bring forth (with or without a staged propaganda). Besides repeatedly reciting the ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’ maxim and accentuating miserably on how the rolling footages indeed helped create public outrage and eventual police action, they kept crying hoarse about one more disturbing aspect - that of a dormant on-looking civil society (which paradoxically included their own crew). Well, the fact that no passing cars really bothered to pause/roll down the window panes (even momentarily) to assess the happenings in the middle of a relatively busy night city street, doesn’t really surprise me. Plagued by a rampant conflict ridden legacy of militancy, army atrocities and bomb blasts for decades, there lies a conscious explanation/justification in our value system of such ‘evading’ ideology, inherited across generations. The scene of a running ‘drunk’ woman in front of a city bar, with some thugs behind, doesn’t naturally help, in the eyes of a status-wary civil society. Well, so what if the ‘responsible’ news channel removed sound clips of the hoodlums (allegedly) shouting the girl to be prostitute across streets, the ‘cowardly’ onlookers had to bear the brunt in the wake of a ‘valiant’ rolling news camera crew and its ultra ‘responsible’ editorial house!
In a nutshell, a nation – outraged and shocked – postured in indignation. Demanded action, retribution and a precursor of deterrence. A ‘sting’-savvy media house grand-standing on a shocking yet ‘valiant’ footage, degraded horrendously in the course of ethical confrontations and in house conspiracy accusations. Morals, ethics and woman atrocities grappled all debate themes. Glimpses of an insensitive, sexist society flickered in paramount visibility. And eventually the devils of the scene, though at large initially, subjected to ‘indisposed’ police apprehension. A ‘red’ wired swaggering ‘Amar Jyoti Kalita’ became the symbol of a mass (successful) ‘social network’ hunt. Unedited leaked images of gruesome perversion made headways in cyber ‘tubes’. And the misfortune of a binge gone horribly wrong, posed to haunt a girl forever with the price of her juvenile ‘misadventure’ carried in the backdrop of inebriety, Live cameras, perversion and cultural bigotry..
