Full transcript
0:01Viewer watch what happens
0:04in this video and I don't want you to
0:06look away.
0:07I want you to watch what happens in this
0:09video from Jamui
0:11in Bihar.
0:12A teenage girl, class 10 girl, and her
0:14friend returning from a coaching center
0:17are stopped and surrounded by a group of
0:20violent men. The boy is thrashed. The
0:23girl folds her hands and begs,
0:25practically pleads to be allowed to
0:27leave. Instead, these men grope her.
0:31They drag her, they abuse her, and they
0:33try to carry her away.
0:36This viral video from a small Bihar town
0:39about 150 km from Patna has rightfully
0:42outraged and disgusted and sickened us
0:45all. Let us make absolutely no mistake.
0:50These were no moral police because that
0:52is how the story first appeared.
0:55Not that that would make any of this
0:57acceptable in the least because these
1:00men were sexual predators, they are
1:02sexual predators, and child sexual
1:04abusers who used this facade of moral
1:07policing, which is criminality by
1:09itself, but they used that to grope,
1:13molest,
1:14assault, and practically rape a teenage
1:16girl.
1:17Viewer, not that any of us are ever
1:19fooled by suggestions that jungle raj
1:21had ended in Bihar,
1:22but Jamui is a shattering confirmation
1:26that it has not. Worse,
1:28the JDU state president, remember the
1:30JDU is part of the ruling alliance in
1:32Bihar along with the BJP, JDU state
1:35president Umesh Kushwaha has dismissed
1:38this assault as a small or isolated
1:40incident.
1:41Even Bihar minister Shrawan Kumar has
1:43scoffed at what happened saying, "It's
1:45no big deal." Which makes me wonder if
1:47this this isn't a big deal to the ruling
1:50party of Bihar, then I don't want to
1:51know what is a big deal.
1:54And it is precisely the horror and
1:56isolation of this attack
1:58that is so terrifying to me and to
2:00millions of people who've been watching
2:01this viral video at a time when India's
2:04youth have been expressing themselves in
2:07such historic ways in different parts of
2:09the country.
2:11At a time when liberties and the rules
2:13of engagement are undergoing a sea
2:15change, whether it is Jantar Mantar or
2:18elsewhere,
2:20Jamui reminds us that millions of
2:23Indians, millions of India's children
2:25and youth still live in darkness,
2:28navigating everyday monsters and the
2:31savagery of societies they have no
2:33choice but to inhabit every day of their
2:35lives. And here's the truth, viewer,
2:37that nobody wants to touch.
2:39The media will move on from Jamui,
2:42but this young girl will almost
2:44definitely now face further humiliation
2:47at home,
2:48restrictions on her freedom, and
2:50uncertainty about her future, despite
2:52being entirely blameless in what
2:55happened to her. She will likely be
2:57shamed in her own safe space.
3:00Jamui has reminded us that while some of
3:02India's youth are finally seeing the
3:04light,
3:05millions remain condemned to live in
3:08darkness, a darkness normalized
3:11by those in power.