Film Industry: NO RATIONAL MAN WOULD COMMIT SUCH A HORRIFIC ACT AS RAPE Ram Gopal Varma

NO RATIONAL MAN WOULD COMMIT SUCH A HORRIFIC ACT AS RAPE Ram Gopal Varma

NO RATIONAL MAN WOULD COMMIT SUCH A HORRIFIC ACT AS RAPE

Ram Gopal Varma
    In the wake of last week’s shocking gang rape in Mumbai, I am disturbed and intrigued about one thing… did the rapists even think about the national outrage over the Delhi gang rape that happened a few months back? If all the noise made and stringent laws passed couldn’t deter this new gang from repeating such a blatant and a horrific act, that too in the nerve centre of India’s commercial capital, it’s obvious that criminals such as these are the last to fear or bother about laws.
    To start with, I don’t think any criminal actually thinks about the severity of the punishment. A criminal commits an act of a crime either because he can’t control his urge, which is psychological, or because he thinks he won’t get caught, which is partly due to ignorance and partly due to overconfidence. So, when we scream from rooftops or via microblogging sites, it doesn’t reach the concerned criminals. And, even if it does, they care a hoot about it.
    Targeting political leaders and law enforcement agencies for the inadequacies in our police department also is of no use. Let’s not forget that that even in far betterequipped places such as New York, such crimes happen, even much more rampantly than here. Trying to increase police vigilance and bring in all kinds of restrictions on movement in the name of safety will only push our society towards becoming a police state. It is easy to cite the examples of almost crime-free countries which practice stringent and brutal punishments such as Sharia, but are any of us really willing to lose our individual freedom just for the sake of feeling safe? The answer from most of us will be a resounding NO.
    Freedom comes with a price and we have no choice but to pay for it and yes, sometimes very dearly. So, if this bitter truth sinks in and if we can manage to keep our emotional outrage aside, I think it would be much wiser to take a mature and more in depth look at crime for what it really is — a disease. A criminal is just a carrier. One might say that a criminal is a human being and has a rational mind, but no rational man would ever take part in such a horrific act such as rape. So it follows that our normal human reactions to such heinous acts would not affect such criminals.
    No civil society, no matter how advanced, has been able to decimate crime. I strongly believe that crime should be diagnosed and treated in the same way as one would treat a disease. It would be enlightening both for the policing agencies as well as the common people. Some really good psychologists should be allowed to conduct in-depth interviews with the Delhi and Mumbai gang rapists to know what they think of women, what they think of the existing laws and what makes them think that they will not get caught. These interviews should be made public — it will be the first step towards us common people understanding the origin, nature and the cause of this horrific disease called crime. And hopefully, we will be able to find a treatment for its cure.