Thousands of candles and prayers at sunset for ’India’s Daughter’

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec. 29, 2012: A series of peaceful marches and protests were today held in the capital, including one at Jantar Mantar, to mourn the death of the 23-year-old paramedical student even as India Gate and Raisina Hill were kept out of bounds for people.

Policemen were deployed in strength in and around India Gate and Raisina Hill as well as other parts of the capital to ensure that the protests remain peaceful besides shutting down of Delhi Metro stations near the war memorial.

 

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit requested Home Minister SushilKumar Shinde to lift restrictions on holding peaceful demonstration in memory of the victim in and around India Gate.

In one of the protests, JNU students marched from  their campus to Munirka bus stop from where the girl boarded the bus in which she was gangraped and brutally assaulted on December 16 allegedly by six men.

The students announced that they will hold a night vigil at the same spot on New Year Eve demanding strong laws to punish sexual offenders.

Activists of Left parties staged a peace march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar led by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat.

She said there was a need for fixing accountability. "Unless we do this, such incidents will repeat," she said. Asked about sexist comments by politicians, she said it shows the mindset of people and that "action should be taken against them in Parliament".

 

 

At Jantar Mantar, a number of people sat on a silent protest. However, later there were sloganeering and demands for immediate punishment of the culprits.

The mourners also protested against the security lock down of India Gate and Raisina Hill where violent demonstrations were witnessed last weekend over the rape.

People started gathering at Jantar Mantar at around 10 AM and sat in silence.

Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas also joined the protest along with some of their supporters with their mouth tied with black cloth.

Mr Kejriwal tweeted, "her death is a matter of shame and sorrow for all of us. Let’s resolve that we will not let her death go in vain.

"Aren’t we all responsible for her death? Can we all now do something so that half of humanity starts feeling safe amongst us?" he said.

"The government is not even allowing mourning of the death. This is insensitivity. There is complete lock down. You have the metro stations shut. You have a road completely blocked. This is undemocratic," a protester Sunil said.

Mr Sisodia said the government was muzzling the voice of people by shutting Metro and closing down India Gate.

In a statement, AAP said the girl, who became the symbol of women’s insecurity and their courage, is no more.

"This is a moment of national grief. This is also a moment of national shame. We, as a nation, have failed to provide conditions in which women can lead a normal life without being subjected to indignities. We, as a society, have failed to evolve a culture of respect and equality for women.

"This event and the subsequent developments have no doubt generated widespread outrage and justified anger. But today we must convert this into a positive resolve. Let us all resolve that we shall convert this moment into a movement to end all forms of violence against women. Let No Violence Against Women be our national new year’s resolution," it said.

In tweets, activist Kiran Bedi said, "today is a day of reflection and personal audit on the way we as parents and teachers are grooming boys in this country.

"Today is day of mourning on lives we have lost because of failure of our criminal justice system and resolve to not fail it in future. Today is a day to also reflect the way we project our women in media," she said.

 

India’s Daughter dies, nation grieves. Govt calls for calm

The 23-year-old medical student, whose savage gang-rape on a moving bus provoked outrage and protests through India, died early this morning in a hospital in Singapore after severe organ failure. Her parents were by her side.

They will reach India with their young daughter’s body on a chartered Air India plane sent for them.  Just three nights ago, they had flown with her doctors and her on an air ambulance to Singapore.

"She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome," a statement by the Mount Elizabeth Hospital said.

The Prime Minister appealed for calm and vowed that those guilty of the murderous assault will be severely punished.

"While she may have lost her battle for life, it is up to us all to ensure that her death will not have been in vain," Dr Manmohan Singh said. The president of his party, Sonia Gandhi, said, "It strengthens our resolve to fight with all our might and with all the powers of our laws and our administration for the safety and protection of all women of our country."

The Delhi Police sealed all routes to India Gate in the heart of the capital, where protests last weekend had been spattered with violence. 5,000 policemen and security officers, some of them in riot gear, were posted to ward off demonstrators who strayed. Nobody did.

In Delhi, close to 500 protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar, the designated spot for demonstrations; some of them lay down with black ribbons across their mouths.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit tried to join them, but was heckled after she lit a candle and was then taken away by her security. Protesters said they objected to her presence because they do not want a political tint to today’s sombre mood.

For 13 days, the student, who used to take tuition classes to pay for her own education according to some reports, fought for her life. She endured three major surgeries, brain injury and a cardiac arrest in a hospital in Delhi. But this was not a woman who was ready to give up. In scribbled messages while on life support systems, she reportedly asked her family if the six men who had damaged her so badly that her intestines had to be removed had been caught and punished.

They have been charged today with her murder; their trial is likely to begin on January 3; the government has promised daily hearings to ensure a verdict is delivered quickly.

Before she was flown to Singapore, the woman shared the details of her attack with two different judges. Her testimony was not video-taped but will be used in the trial.

On December 16, the student and a male friend boarded a bus after watching a film when they were attacked by six men who took turns to rape her. They also beat the couple with an iron rod.  The bus kept circling a 31-kilometre stretch in South Delhi, its tinted windows concealing the savagery within as it rolled unstopped through a series of police checkpoints. Almost an hour later, the couple was thrown from the bus onto the road.

Courtesy: NDTV