When the nation erupted in outrage following the brutal December 16 Delhi gang-rape, it was something that everyone was talking and worrying about. The rapes have not stopped and two years later we are still talking, debating, conjecturing, outraging. Sure, it is important to keep the conversation going, but the India that our generation is existing in also comprises of men like Mukesh Singh, one of the accused in the Delhi gang-rape case, who continues to believe that the girl is responsible for the rape. "A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy", he says in a BBC documentary as reported by The Telegraph.

Reform or capital punishment?

While these rapists continue to be fed and taken care of in prison cells, what bothers me is the fact that there is no sense of remorse. Mukesh manages to send out a warning to the women of India in his statement when he says the death penalty will make rapists kill their victims.

Mahatma Gandhi said, "I cannot in all conscience agree to any one being sent to the gallows. God alone can take a life because he alone gives it." The Mahatma was invoked, ironically, by advocate AP Singh who argued in the convicts' defence.

Today, we need to ask again, is reform of any use in the context of a rapist? If it was, this man would not have managed to send a shiver down my spine with his statement.



If the convicted men, or Mukesh Singh manages to receive a pardon some years hence, how should we feel reassured that he won't rape, and kill, again?