By : Valson Thampu

Dear Priyanka Ji,

We are tribal women from Bastar. Sixteen of us were raped and brutalized last year. We are still waiting for justice.

Together with millions of other politically neutral women, we hailed your entry into politics. That was not because you were good looking. As poor, vulnerable women who live outside the boundaries of civilization, we have no opinion on ‘looks’. We leave that to judges at beauty pageants.

We hailed you as a woman, as one among us. Also as a counter balancing force in national politics, which is currently in utter disequilibrium. Experience tells us that absence of equilibrium is a standing invitation to violence. And there is a lot of it everywhere. That is our lot. There is nothing to ward off the violence unleashed on us. Anyone can rape us, and outrage us for mere fun, in assured immunity. The state looks the other way.

The sexist attack on you is a fleabite compared to the violence we live with. We are happy that there was a national outcry when the fangs of sexism were bared against you. But we urge you that protection cannot be selective. How can you be safe as a woman, if India as a whole is unsafe for women? Bastar, dear Priyankaji, is part of India. It sleeps under the Indian Constitution, though some of the state policemen think otherwise.

We appeal to you because we are too weak and powerless to fight this battle on our own. We simply don’t have the strength. We are poor. We are not attractive. (Thank God we are not. Even as it is we are raped and violated at will.) We don’t speak English. We have no PR machinery. Tucked away in the hinterland, we are not even visible; except to the predators and sharks, who come to us armed and uniformed.

We are treated worse than cattle. Law, NGOs and movements rally round animals. Dogs on streets have better protection than we do. And we are women! Don’t you think this needs to change?

Will anything change on its own? Shouldn’t someone take it upon herself to bring about a change? Who else do we have, except you?

We know you are busy with UP elections. Even so we appeal to you to come and spend a day with us in solidarity. You will do more for UP, and the rest of the country, by coming to us than by crisscrossing the state of Utter Pradesh. The battle for UP can be won better from Bastar!

We firmly believe that you will not disappoint us. For your own sake we hope you won’t. We pin our faith on your surname, “Gandhi”. We are sure that Indiraji would have visited us a year ago. We are absolutely certain that Bapuji would have undertaken a fast unto death. And not relented until the culprits were brought to book and the safety of tribal women firmly ensured.

The NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) has ordered that a compensation of Rs. 37 lakhs be given to us. Compensation? For raping a woman soon after she gave birth to a baby? For cruelty that puts maniacs to shame? For brutality worse than that of wild animals? All committed by those who are paid by the state to protect citizens?

Compensating for unspeakable outrages, without bothering to ensure that atrocities do not happen again to us, is a cynical mockery. Our dignity is snatched from us. Our humanity is scarred. Our womanhood is trampled underfoot. Compensation? Are we cattle that a price tag can be put on our suffering?

Let that be. Our wounds will heal, if only you’d come. But come, not just for our sake. Come, for the sake of the women of India. If in our homes we have been raped and violated, from the polluted soil of Baster, where our dogs and cattle saw the nakedness of state aggression, a lion should roar loud enough to be heard nationwide.

Cowards will listen only to lions. Please come!

Yours sincerely,

The raped, outraged, brutalized women of Bastar, who have no other hope or refuge.