The Oscar winning film Spotlight looked at the investigation into child sex abuse by priests of the Catholic Church, and how the Church when told about these crimes, rather than take action tried to cover them up, sending the priests to new parishes where they could continue unchecked abuse. India has her own Spotlight moment.
It has been over two and a half months since a nun filed a FIR alleging that Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Roman Catholic Diocese (Jalandhar) had raped her over a dozen times in the last two years. The news caused shockwaves in the church, the Catholic community, and in society at large. Since then, there have been other nuns who have come forward with accusations of abuse by the same Bishop. Since the 29 June, when the nun filed the charges, the police has been investigating the case. Given the organizational might of the Church, the investigations are moving at a snail’s pace. After a protest by others nuns on the inaction on this issue, the kerala High Court has directed the police to submit an action taken report.
This story has been played out many times on national and international media. A powerful man with powerful friends, made all the more powerful by the backing of organized religion, in this case the Catholic Church versus the powerless survivor of sexual assault — either a child or adult. The tendency for the rich and powerful to make a deal among themselves to protect their own, and sweep the victim under a carpet is huge. But, that does not serve the interests of justice.
And, this is where the State comes in. The role of the state in a democratic, secular, republic is to protect the rights of the individual, not of organizations or cabals of the powerful. And, this is where the State needs to act. This is not a Church matter. It is not up to the Church to exile or reassign the Bishop. It is a state matter. And, it is necessary for the state to act. Rape is a crime and the punishment for this has to be meted out by the criminal justice system.
And, this is what is meant by being truly secular. Truly secular is not giving a free pass to all transgressions by senior members of organized religion. Truly secular is ignoring those affiliations in the pursuit of justice. The state must become blind to the religious associations of the survivor and the accused and look at it as a case where the Indian Penal Code has been violated, and rights of a citizen have been trampled upon; and work in the interests of the survivor to deliver justice. And, therefore in the interests of justice, the Bishop needs to be treated not as a member of a powerful organization, but as any man accused of rape. And, that means him being arrested for the crime. This is what the state needs to do. The big question is whether it will have the courage to do what is right.
