BBC Four’s Storyville to broadcast interview with convicted Delhi gang rapist Mukesh Singh
Date: 27.02.2015 Last updated: 02.03.2015 at 16.56
On Sunday 8 March, BBC Four will feature an exclusive in-depth interview with one of the convicted men in the Delhi gang rape which sent shockwaves around the world in December 2012.
The interview appears in India’s Daughter, a BBC Storyville documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, which tells the story of the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti on a moving bus in Delhi and the unprecedented protests and riots which this event ignited throughout India, demanding changes in attitudes towards women.
On 16 December 2012, Jyoti was returning home from the cinema with a male friend when a bus with five men and a 17 year-old offered them a lift. Subsequently, the men and teenager beat Jyoti’s friend before dragging her to the back of the bus where she was gang raped and brutally assaulted.
Jyoti suffered horrendous injuries to her abdomen, genitals and intestines. After the attack Jyoti, and her friend, were thrown from the moving bus. She subsequently underwent extensive medical treatment but died 13 days after the attack.
Mukesh Singh, the bus driver who admitted driving the bus during the incident, but denied taking part in the attack, was one of five men convicted of Jyoti’s rape and murder and sentenced to death by hanging. He and three others are currently on appeal with their sentences put on hold. Another man charged with rape and murder, Ram Singh (Mukesh’s brother), was found dead in his cell in March 2013. The juvenile convicted of rape and murder was sentenced to three years in a reform facility.
In Mukesh Singh’s interview, to be broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 8 March, he says women are more responsible for rape than men, women should not travel late at night, nor should they go to discos and bars or wear the ‘wrong clothes’. He also claims that his execution will make life more dangerous for future rape victims. Singh says: “You can’t clap with one hand - it takes two hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”
Speaking about the appalling attack, which he refers to as “an accident”, Mukesh Singh suggested the rape and beatings were to teach Jyoti and her friend a lesson that they should not have been out late at night. And he criticised Jyoti for having fought back against her attackers saying: “When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”
He said that executing him and the other convicted rapists/murderers will endanger future rape victims: “The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won't tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”
Two lawyers who defended the men convicted of Jyoti’s rape and murder are also interviewed in the programme.
In a previous televised interview, lawyer AP Singh said: “If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight.” And he confirms to Udwin in the documentary that his stance remains the same: “This is my stand. I still today stand on that reply.”
Another defence lawyer who acted in the case, ML Sharma, says: “In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7:30 or 8:30 in the evening with any unknown person.”
“You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn't have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman.”
Jyoti’s mother says: “Whenever there's a crime, the girl is blamed, ‘She should not go out. She shouldn't roam around so late or wear such clothes.' It's the boys who should be accused and asked why they do this. They shouldn't do this.”
An excerpt of this interview can be viewed below.
Writer and historian Dr Maria Misra of Oxford University says: “Her death has made a huge difference. I think that, first of all, it has really brought home the issue of the problems of the way young and independent women are perceived in Indian society. It's opened up a debate in India that I think hasn't been held publicly and widely about exactly what the relationship between men and women should be.”
Jyoti’s father says: “Jyoti has become a symbol. In death, she has lit such a torch that not only this country, but the whole world, got lit up. But at the same time, she posed a question. What is the meaning of ‘a woman’? How is she looked upon by society today? And I wish that whatever darkness there is in this world should be dispelled by this light.”
Director-Producer Leslee Udwin describes what impelled her to make the documentary: “When news of this gang-rape hit our TV screens in December 2012, I was as shocked and upset as we all are when faced with such brazen abandon of the norms of ‘civilised’ society. But what actually inspired me to commit to the harrowing and difficult journey of making this film was the optimism occasioned by the reports that followed the rape. Courageous and impassioned ordinary men and women of India braved the December freeze to protest in unprecedented numbers, withstanding an onslaught of teargas shells, lathi charges and water canons, to make their cry of ‘enough is enough’ heard. In this regard, India led the world by example. In my lifetime, I can’t recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women’s rights. I am thrilled that the BBC has scheduled the film to air on International Women’s Day, 8th March.”
SOURCE: BBC
OP: Hadn't heard anything about this in awhile. Wish it wasn't something so vile.
On Sunday 8 March, BBC Four will feature an exclusive in-depth interview with one of the convicted men in the Delhi gang rape which sent shockwaves around the world in December 2012.
The interview appears in India’s Daughter, a BBC Storyville documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, which tells the story of the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti on a moving bus in Delhi and the unprecedented protests and riots which this event ignited throughout India, demanding changes in attitudes towards women.
On 16 December 2012, Jyoti was returning home from the cinema with a male friend when a bus with five men and a 17 year-old offered them a lift. Subsequently, the men and teenager beat Jyoti’s friend before dragging her to the back of the bus where she was gang raped and brutally assaulted.
Jyoti suffered horrendous injuries to her abdomen, genitals and intestines. After the attack Jyoti, and her friend, were thrown from the moving bus. She subsequently underwent extensive medical treatment but died 13 days after the attack.
Mukesh Singh, the bus driver who admitted driving the bus during the incident, but denied taking part in the attack, was one of five men convicted of Jyoti’s rape and murder and sentenced to death by hanging. He and three others are currently on appeal with their sentences put on hold. Another man charged with rape and murder, Ram Singh (Mukesh’s brother), was found dead in his cell in March 2013. The juvenile convicted of rape and murder was sentenced to three years in a reform facility.
In Mukesh Singh’s interview, to be broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 8 March, he says women are more responsible for rape than men, women should not travel late at night, nor should they go to discos and bars or wear the ‘wrong clothes’. He also claims that his execution will make life more dangerous for future rape victims. Singh says: “You can’t clap with one hand - it takes two hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”
Speaking about the appalling attack, which he refers to as “an accident”, Mukesh Singh suggested the rape and beatings were to teach Jyoti and her friend a lesson that they should not have been out late at night. And he criticised Jyoti for having fought back against her attackers saying: “When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”
He said that executing him and the other convicted rapists/murderers will endanger future rape victims: “The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won't tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”
Two lawyers who defended the men convicted of Jyoti’s rape and murder are also interviewed in the programme.
In a previous televised interview, lawyer AP Singh said: “If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight.” And he confirms to Udwin in the documentary that his stance remains the same: “This is my stand. I still today stand on that reply.”
Another defence lawyer who acted in the case, ML Sharma, says: “In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7:30 or 8:30 in the evening with any unknown person.”
“You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn't have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman.”
Jyoti’s mother says: “Whenever there's a crime, the girl is blamed, ‘She should not go out. She shouldn't roam around so late or wear such clothes.' It's the boys who should be accused and asked why they do this. They shouldn't do this.”
An excerpt of this interview can be viewed below.
Writer and historian Dr Maria Misra of Oxford University says: “Her death has made a huge difference. I think that, first of all, it has really brought home the issue of the problems of the way young and independent women are perceived in Indian society. It's opened up a debate in India that I think hasn't been held publicly and widely about exactly what the relationship between men and women should be.”
Jyoti’s father says: “Jyoti has become a symbol. In death, she has lit such a torch that not only this country, but the whole world, got lit up. But at the same time, she posed a question. What is the meaning of ‘a woman’? How is she looked upon by society today? And I wish that whatever darkness there is in this world should be dispelled by this light.”
Director-Producer Leslee Udwin describes what impelled her to make the documentary: “When news of this gang-rape hit our TV screens in December 2012, I was as shocked and upset as we all are when faced with such brazen abandon of the norms of ‘civilised’ society. But what actually inspired me to commit to the harrowing and difficult journey of making this film was the optimism occasioned by the reports that followed the rape. Courageous and impassioned ordinary men and women of India braved the December freeze to protest in unprecedented numbers, withstanding an onslaught of teargas shells, lathi charges and water canons, to make their cry of ‘enough is enough’ heard. In this regard, India led the world by example. In my lifetime, I can’t recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women’s rights. I am thrilled that the BBC has scheduled the film to air on International Women’s Day, 8th March.”
SOURCE: BBC
OP: Hadn't heard anything about this in awhile. Wish it wasn't something so vile.