The ongoing Jasleen Kaur and Sarvjeet Singh Debate

For those active on the social media in India, Jasleen Kaur and Sarvjeet Singh debate doesn't need any introduction. For the uninitiated though, the issue is as follows: Jasleen Kaur, a supposed activist of the AAP Youth wing, posted on Facebook the picture of a person – who later turned out to be a normal Delhi citizen Sarvjeet Singh – along with a text calling him a ‘pervert’ and saying that he misbehaved with her and bad-mouthed her at a traffic light. The post went viral and many people – including me and Sonakshi Sinha (without implying that we both stand in the same league) – shared it across. The person was hailed as a ‘molester’ and even a potential rapist. Two days later, the guy was traced and arrested by police on the basis of the Facebook post. Allegedly, he ended up not only spending a couple of nights behind bars but also losing his job. Out on bail, he shared an emotional reply on Jasleen’s post stating that he had not misbehaved with her and on the contrary Jasleen had misbehaved with him and bad-mouthed him. All of a sudden, a couple of witnesses also surfaced supporting Sarvjeet’s claim and suddenly Jasleen’s affiliation to AAP being highlighted by the media turned all of this into a so-called political publicity stunt for her. Meanwhile, AAP supremo and Delhi CM had even announced an award of Rs. 5,000/- for Jasleen for her so called ‘act of bravery’ and for showing the courage to report an incident of molestation and ‘crime against women’.

These are the facts which I have tried my best to state without taking any sides. In fact, I have decided not to take any sides in this matter even though I had first made the mistake of sharing Jasleen’s post initially. But, I have since removed that post from my Facebook; and all such subsequent posts as well after realizing my mistake. Let me be expressly clear on what I mean when I say ‘my mistake’. I refer it to mean me sharing Jasleen’s post without any idea or proof of it being true and without any corroboration. I do not refer it to mean me sharing Jasleen’s post which eventually turned out to be a false claim. I want to be very clear and maintain that I do not know who is saying the truth and who is not and I do not even have the means to find out, so, I remain neutral until the truth comes out.

Now, having clarified my stand, I would like to note down a few questions and concerns that have been going on in my head from the incident.

1. Amidst all the chaos that happened over the issue one thing which got pretty clear was that after the incident, people have started doubting the legitimacy of eve-teasing cases, especially the ones that go viral on social media. Even I can’t help think now in each and every case that this is a one-sided story and I don’t know what the other side has to say. It is not a very positive shift in mentality because as such very few cases of eve-teasing and sexual harassment are filed by girls. Now, even fewer people will come out in support of the girls who have suffered molestation on city streets. Will this not strengthen the already existing social stigma against reporting crime against women?
2. What is it with the Delhi government awarding her with a cash prize of Rs. 5,000/-? No, I’m not commenting on the amount. Any cash prize has relative importance depending on what it was awarded for and how much value the recipient attaches to it. My concern is with respect to the intent of the award. Jasleen had not taken a legal route yet. She had posted the incident details on Facebook alright. But even if we assume for a minute that her claims are right and genuine, I personally do not think that it counts as courage to report the incident. In fact, as per me, it does not even count as reporting the incident as reporting the incident would have been had she lodged an FIR against the alleged molester, which she never did. What courage then?
3. Also, that brings me to the legal system and the police functioning in India. In Delhi (and so I assume that in India althogether), a domestic violence case or a dowry harassment case cannot legally be lodged in the Police Station directly. It has to be routed through the Crime against Women’s Cell where they ‘counsel’ you and the alleged wrong-doers for at least 3 months (of course there’s no upper limit to the timeline). An FIR usually is filed only after the CAWC sends a report to the DCP saying that it is a fit case for an FIR and the DCP approves filing of the FIR. Which mean that it could be months and even years before a domestic violence or a dowry harassment case even reaches a police station. But, it took the police just two days to arrest an alleged eve teaser on the basis of a viral Facebook post and they did not even wait for an official police complaint to be filed. What an irony? Why is it that our police functions only when something gets highlighted in the public either via social media or via print and TV media?
4. When it comes to the common man, everyone is sympathetic as seen in the given case of Jasleen Kaur where everyone supported her initially. However, as soon as the news of her political association with AAP came into knowledge, people’s entire perspective changed. All of a sudden, everyone started claiming that she is doing this to establish her political agenda, especially in the light of upcoming DUSU elections. People even said that this is a ploy by AAP to establish her as a face on women empowerment within their student followers. Does this not show how much do we trust the system and how gullible people are? 
5. One interesting thing that happened was the rise of eye-witnesses immediately after Sarvjeet’s arrest. They all supported and supposedly corroborated Sarvjeet’s version of the story. Also suddenly CCTV footage also surfaced trying to prove Jasleen a liar by showing her monitoring traffic. How long was the footage? A few seconds and it did not even show the war of words between Jasleen and Sarvjeet. They all were simply trying to prove that Jasleen was lying. Maybe she was and maybe she wasn’t, I don’t know. But, I often wonder why do we never have such eye-witnesses and CCTV footages in real genuine cases. Why did none of the people who saw Nirbhaya and her friend lying stripped and wounded on the road for 45 minutes ever show up to give witness? Why did nobody spoke for the girl who was stripped naked by a bunch of boys in full public view in Kolkata and her video was shot and uploaded on the internet? Why did nobody in the crowd come out when a mob simply went crazy on a new year’s night and stripped naked a girl simply out of new year frenzy in Mumbai? Why is it that when it is time to support a girl against a wrong nobody speaks up and people come forward to support a guy when he is allegedly the wronged party?
6. I was actually surprised how quickly the tides turned in favour of Sarvjeet what with everyone suddenly becoming concerned that the girls are using social media to malign just about any innocent guy. He was immediately declared innocent without even the matter going to the court. I admit Jasleen’s modus operandi was wrong even if she does genuinely believe herself to be a wronged party. But, are we the people not doing the same mistake again by openly now supporting Sarvjeet against Jasleen? If we did not corroborate Jasleen’s claims, have we corroborated Sarvjeet’s claims before openly supporting him? Also, if Sarvjeet’s claims are true and he has all those witnesses and CCTV footages, why is he asking for sympathy and support from the social media? Why doesn’t he simply file a defamation case against Jasleen? Why are the people not questioning him on that? For all I know, unless the court decides who was right and who actually misbehaved basis all evidences, we cannot ourselves pass any judgements basis rudimentary evidences available on the internet. Are we even qualified to form conclusions from that?
7. And, finally, the one thing that pinched me the most in this episode was how people not only bullied Jasleen after the tide turned but also all the people, mostly ladies, who had supported Jasleen and shared her post. Sonakshi Sinha came out with a public apology after being booed on Facebook and Twitter, mostly just to put an end to the tirade. And I can understand that since I went through the same. A few ‘friends’ of mine on Facebook started tagging me to every story supporting Sarvjeet and condemning Jasleen. I usually do not entertain tags, even on photos where I am actually there. But I still accommodated and accepted the tags and let them show on my timeline just so that the friend who tagged me appreciates that I have accepted my mistake and am open to his views. But these were then also accompanied with comments directly aimed at me ‘always’ supporting women and never speaking in favour of men. Personally, I always try to be fair though I do often tend to speak for the women but I have always maintained that I am not against all men but only those who do consider women as second-grade human beings and which are maybe quite a few in number. But how many times do you explain this to someone who is just not ready to understand? So, just as the comments continued, so did the tagging. After the first, and then the second and then the third, it actually started getting on my nerves. And I started rejecting tags and even deleted all articles I had previously allowed on my timeline along with the comments. Good that the taggers took the hint but seriously, for had this continued for a day more, I had already made up my mind to ‘unfriend’ and even ‘block’ the people who consider it their right to bully others on social media just because they have a different opinion and point of view than theirs.