In the Rape Court of God

PJ Kurien is at the Vatican with the Pope while the Suryanelli rape case victim is asked to stay away from church

Last month, Open did a story on the Suryanelli rape victim (‘17 Years of Solitude’, 25 February). Shahina KK, who wrote the piece, has been following the case for over a decade. When she interviewed the victim and her family, one of the things that struck her was their terrible isolation. They had been forced to cocoon themselves from society. Their only respite was spending all free time exclusively in prayer. Shahina is an atheist but she remarked at the time that she understood why that family would completely turn themselves to God. It was the one and only thing that lent some order to the horrendous experiences they had been made to go through. This included, of course, the girl’s gangrape by 42 men spread over weeks. Then, soon after the girl pointed out the politician PJ Kurien, at present the Rajya Sabha vice-chairman, as one of her rapists, it became a political issue and the tide swung from sympathy to character assassination. Newspapers started insinuating that she was a willing party, the police started putting pressure on the family to not pursue the case, and, as Shahina’s story noted, one judge in his judgment said that because she had a habit of bedwetting she couldn’t take responsibility for her own actions.

Since that article was published in Open, yet another institution has joined the list of abusers, and this, as Shakespeare would say, is perhaps ‘the most unkindest cut of all’. The Church, that self-proclaimed middleman between God and his human subjects, betrayed the family not once, but twice in a span of a few weeks. The first instance was when the priest of the local St Francis Xavier’s Church in Kurinchi told the victim’s family to stay away from church. The cited reason: their names had started appearing in the media after they once again demanded action against Kurien. According to the victim’s mother, it was not a ban as much as friendly advice and they were told it was only until the controversy died down.

The same logic, however, did not apply to Kurien. Just this Tuesday, in a complete travesty, Kurien himself was at the Vatican leading a delegation to congratulate the new Pope on his ascension. And the Pope didn’t think the controversy needed to die down because you can see him in a photo looking at Kurien with saintly eyes and talking to him.

It is true that Jesus Christ asked for sinners to be forgiven but this sequence of events still doesn’t fit in with that exhortation. Forget about whether Kurien is guilty or not, between a crushed family that is soliciting God’s assistance daily and a politician out to redeem his image with the Christian constituency through deft public relations, the Pope should in fact have been embracing the victim. And the local priest should have been telling Kurien to stay away from church till everyone knew for certain that he was not a rapist. You can’t forgive the sinner and not forgive those he sinned against at the same time.

There are a number of things that the Suryanelli case tells us about the idea of justice, and it starts with it existing only among equals. If massive business houses are pitted against each other, as in the 2G scam, then there might be a fair outcome. But if the parties involved are akin to an elephant and an ant, as in this case, then justice is a mirage. It is not surprising that those who were convicted in the case are also from a ‘lower’ strata of society.

Justice is actually a very strange construct. It only exists among humans and all of us think we are entitled to it. Terrorists use denial of justice as an excuse to murder innocents, but even for them the concept is necessary. But in practice, there is nothing innate about it. Justice exists because men created it and those who wield its levers can just as easily usurp it. Not even a complete overhaul of society makes any change. For example, the Soviet revolution uprooted the entire structure because of its inequities and just ended up replacing class with party. The Suryanelli victim would have been leading a better life if she had not named Kurien. That is the sad truth of it.

PJ KurienSuryanelli rape caseVatican