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Astha Kunj in South Delhi is a 22-acre park, originally created to link three places of worship: the Kalkaji temple, the Iskcon temple and the Bahai Lotus temple. It is sadly ironical that a young girl on her way home after celebrating her seventeenth birthday with a friend, was brutally attacked and gang-raped by three men in the area.

Other incidents of rape preceded or followed it in the same month. From Bihar to Chennai there is ample proof that women’s definition as sexual objects, who can easily be subjected to forced sex, is now a pan-India phenomenon. What has contributed greatly to this crime is a burgeoning porn industry easily available to men of all ages through social media platforms.

So the rape of women, especially minors, is now an indigenous phenomenon in India, not exceptional in cities or villages. Even worse, social media is also being used to put out actual visuals of the act by some sickos. This has happened in Chennai and then in Bihar’s Jamui. The clips went viral within hours.

What was the official reaction from the double- or triple-engine governments to these crimes? A Janata Dal (United) minister, whose party is a major coalition partner of the ruling party in Bihar, termed it a mere chhut-put ghatna (a sporadic incident).

In the capital city, a 16-year-old was reported to have been gang-raped and murdered in Swaroop Nagar on September 10, followed by two incidents of rape on September 21, one involving a 6-year-old and the other 17-year-old girl. As I write this, a girl from Mukherjee Nagar has lodged a police complaint about a bid to kidnap her and her friend by four car-borne young men.

In all cases, the police and politicians........

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