Ever since the news broke regarding what one of the Delhi Dec 16 gang-rapists thought about women, a debate has gone back and forth across the country about whether he should have been interviewed in the first place.
The very real question does arise - is it necessary to give a man who helped beat a woman to death after raping her and inserting an iron rod into her genitals an "interview"?
While his views on women are shocking, haven't his actions already spoken volumes about how he fundamentally considers all Indian women as meat for his sadistic activities?
The man is due to be hanged, and will shortly and rightfully pay with his life for his barely believable depravity. Would it not have been better that he died unsung and unknown, while the country remembered his victim?
Instead, now the whole country is watching his face, listening to him give explanations about why it happened - without even the pretense of remorse. It is obvious, if given a chance, he would do it all over again - perhaps even with the same iron rod.
The BBC filmmaker who made the film appears misguided in her attempts to bring sexual violence to the forefront, choosing as she has, to make a big circus out of the rapist, instead of focusing on the victim. Or perhaps the live rapist makes for better cinema than the victim, who is dead and cannot speak on camera.
The poster for her documentary proudly proclaims - "See the face of evil".
Why is this rapist now being elevated to a James Bond villain?
He is not the face of evil, he is nobody. He is a barely human creature that inflicted horror the likes of which we can barely imagine on an innocent girl, whom he trapped and brutalized. Is there any need to give him a voice? To place him, well-dressed and clean-shaven, before a camera so he can spout his disgusting nonsense?
In any case, the whole affair requires serious investigation. Why did a foreign filmmaker get access when Indian journalists were denied access? It is beyond belief that no Indian journalist has tried to speak to him. It is obvious they were denied permission.
While most of the media has restricted themselves to merely reporting what the person has said, only NDTV apparently saw it fit to make a special out of the whole thing - as if it were already not a spectacle. As NDTV has been advertising nearly non-stop, they planned to air the documentary, in prime time, as a special.
And in the "build-up" to their grand showing, NDTV interviewed the filmmaker, and Nirbhaya's parents. It is difficult to see what the parents were expected to say, but they came and perhaps said the only thing they could say - hang the man faster.
src:sify.com