My neighbor’s daughter in Std III, came crying complaining
of pain near her legs. Sunita, my neighbor works as a committee member in
National Security Advisory council to Government of India. Upon examination,
she found that her daughter was sexually assaulted. The girl confirmed her
doubts. The little girl did complain to the teacher who maintained a neutral
response.

I was shocked not as much at the trauma faced by the little
girl as the action taken by her mother. I expected that like any determined
parent, Sunita would take up the issue immediately with not just the
teacher but even involve principal and the parents of the boy and make sure
that the boy is no longer sitting next to her daughter, better still be
transferred to other division. The boy should be also sent for counseling. The
matter will not be solved till the boy and his parents commit that such an
incidence shall not be repeated with any other student in the school. But
unlike any of the above steps, Sunita chose to take up the issue in the
parents’ meeting to be held next month! She maintained that talking (forget
talking tough) to teachers, principal or boy’s parents will break the integrity
and peaceful environment of the school and will also disrupt the regular
studies. Such issues should be resolved with bilateral talks at the appropriate
time. Addressing the issue to the teachers and sending warning to the boy is
nothing but getting aggressive and emotional and cannot lead to the solution. I
argued fervently and seeing that Sunita seems to be more concerned about the
boy than her daughter, also put forward a point in the interest of the boy. I
told her that the boy should be made aware that this behavior is not appropriate.
If he is not stopped from such behavior, he will get motivated to repeat such
instances. We will be responsible for ruining the future of a child which could
have been saved with counseling at the right time. Before I could complete,  Sunita’s sister blatantly argued that women are destined to bear troubles in their lives and they need to
start inculcating ‘tolerance’ within them!

There have been a minimum of 12 repeated offences from the
boy towards the little girl thanks to his unchecked behavior. After a long wait
(which could have been expedited and I guess only I have been waiting) when the
parents meeting took place, the boy’s parents did not entertain any of their
son’s complaints and on the contrary humiliated Sunita calling her ‘a rustic
agony aunt’. Any of the above reactions of boy’s
family did not deter Sunita from inviting them over for a dinner for proper
talks which was reciprocated by boy’s family as well. The teachers are happy to
see that both the parties are on talking terms and not hostile.

I asked if this much anticipated meeting did solve the issue
of recurrent attacks on the innocent girl. The reply came was yes, the issues
were raised and will be discussed at length in the consecutive meetings, the
boy’s parents assured of full co-operation. I asked when would be the next
meeting. She said soon. I asked how soon. She said not decided yet but soon may
be I’ll wait for their response!

There cannot be a better analogy than Sunita’s daughter
exploitation case to the beheading and mutilation episodes of Indian soldiers by
the Pakistani Army, repeated infiltration and violations of LOC by the
Pakistani Army. In the wake of repeated infiltration and violations of LOC by the
Pakistani Army, the response of Government of India and especially the Prime Minister
is not only shocking but shameful for the country. There has been no strict
message, forget the action that has been taken by the government. The Prime
Minister has not shown offense against Pakistan and on the contrary, has shown the
audacity to greet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York even when
the latter humiliated him (calling him village woman). After all these
humiliations, when the meeting between Indian & Pakistani Prime Ministers took place, the nation anticipated some concrete outcome. But the press
briefing about the meeting revealed that the nation has been again taken for
granted. Couple of days after what is termed as ‘a meeting that was useful and
provided opportunity for high level contact’ by the Government, fresh
infiltration began with the help of Pakistani Army in Keran area of Kashmir. India
has also shown audacity to discuss issues related to trade during the meeting
and opening up the borders when Pakistan is exporting fresh terrorism.  Is this the strategic and diplomatic approach that
the Government always propagated as means to achieve peace with Pakistan?

The Prime Minister is not alone. His allies new and old have
sworn to be by his side through thick and thin. Bihar’s Agriculture Minister under
Nitish Kumar led JD(U)government, Narendra Singh responded on the killing of
five Indian soldiers along LoC, by saying that Pakistan is our younger brother
and a neighbor and is not responsible for killings. Few days before this
statement, Rural Works and Panchayati Raj Minister of Bihar, Bhim Singh had
said that policemen and soldiers are recruited to make sacrifices for the
nation. Mustafa Kamal, the younger brother of Union minister Farooq Abdullah constantly
criticizes Indian army and has called India as an enemy.

Amidst the political apathy, the morale of Indian Army is still
upbeat. Blame it on the love of the land that is ingrained in our philosophy, Vande
Mataram has been inspiring generations of soldiers. May be that is the reason
why opposition has been shown against the former.

Many of us like the Government of India wait for others to
take necessary action to mitigate our troubles. We blame others for their
inaction when we should be questioning our intent and ability.  The exploitation of our soldiers continues. It
is about time for serious action, not war but strategic pressure policies that
are more nation than neighbor friendly.