Amritsar, Punjab (December 21, 2012): Stressing the need to add stringent measures in the existing law, the Dal Khalsa has suggested life imprisonment till death without parole for rape accused and emphasized on bringing members of the security forces under its purview. Expressing anguish about the incident of gang rape of 23 year old woman in New Delhi on Sunday, the organization termed it as a reflection of degradation that has crept into Indian society.
In a strongly worded statement released to the media, the party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh and general secretary Dr Manjinder Singh said there was no doubt that it was a most ghastly act, something beyond imagining.
They said the brutality in which the rape has been done has not only shocked but shaken every sensible person. They blamed the silence of the society in the past as major reason for recurrence of such shameful incidents. “Since this time, the civil society has vented their anger and deep pain, let us not allow it to go in vain”. Expressing sympathy with the victim and consoling her parents, they said apart from strict legislation, what needs to be done was to change the sick mentality of our male-dominated society.
Joining a debate about the quantum of punishment for the accused in rape case, they expressed reservations on voices demanding death penalty. “Death penalty is not a deterrent to any crime”. However, they suggested that it should be life imprisonment till death without parole.
They regretted that the Indian state in order to humiliate the collective consciousness of the dissenting peoples and nations allowed its security forces that enjoys impunity, to use rape as a ‘tool’ against the ethnic minorities and struggling peoples in Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and also against tribals and pro-naxal sympathizers. They pointed out that there should not be any impunity to security forces or mobs that indulges in violence against women including rapes.
They said the stringent law against rapists was necessary because it was the same sick and brutal mindset of that society that was reflected when frenzied mob under the patronage of then rulers dishonoured hundreds of Sikh women during the Sikh holocaust of Nov 1984.