I have always felt Chandigarh is the safest city until last night when I read the whole story of DJ Varnika Kundu stalked by Senior BJP politician’s son and his friend. The way she has described the incident on her FB wall gave Goosebumps to me thinking what would have I done if I were at her place. The way she handled everything was Admirable.
Haryana BJP Chief Subhash barala’s son Vikas barala & his friend Ashish kumar stalked her while she was going home and even tried to kidnap her. Both of them were drunk as told by Varnika. Varnika Kundu is the daughter of Virender Kundu, IAS officer in Haryana.
The whole incident was disturbing for the Girl as well as people reading about the happenings. What forced me to write this blog is the way Barala Family trying to Victim-Shame Varnika by describing her character. I was reading a News few hours ago shared by one of my FB Friend, thewire.in reported about the way Barala family is trying to put everything on the girl by telling what she do in her personal life.
Subhash Barala’s family member Kuldeep barala shared two posts about Varnika which were later deleted by him. He shared a photo in which Varnika was sitting with two men and implied that she was drunk during the time of Incident. In another post, he shared Varnika’s photo with Alcohol glasses in her hand and raised question about her character. He also claimed that she did all this just to spoil BJP Leader’s image. Even he did not spare Chandigarh police who took immediate action against both culprits and slammed them by saying they leaked the incident to media.
All I want to ask from everyone reading this is that how can a drink and maybe sitting with men describe a woman’s Character? The incident happened with Kundu, she is a girl and not only a daughter of an IAS Officer. Just let aside all the influential people involved here and ask Kuldeep Barala on what grounds he decided about Varnika’s character? Just because a woman drinks, sits with men, go to clubs, work at night shifts, go to home late, or even if she wears short clothes, Does that give any man the right to misbehave with her and take her with him forcefully? We are here talking about women safety, not the powerful people involved. It’s just that Vikas belongs to political family and people are here asking a simple question that if members of our leader’s family will behave like this then who is going to save the nation and respect women? People idolize politicians, leaders and have much hope from them. If a politician can’t teach his or her own children about respecting a girl then who will be changing the situation of women in our country? Well I guess according to them, “Terrorists” or maybe “Some other country people”, right na?
Drinking, smoking, clubbing, wearing short clothes, going home late, choosing a night shift job, all this depends on a girl’s personal choices. Some like this and some just don’t. You just can’t define a girl’s character with some of her choices. First of all, her character has nothing to do with this incident. Even if a prostitute gets raped, it’s call rape only. You just can’t touch any girl without her permission. You have no right to terrorize her by stalking her and blocking her way and then trying to kidnap her even if she was highly drunk. It’s a man’s responsibility to drop a drunken woman home safely, not taking her with him at his own house.
Just a change in mentality is needed here. All depends on “Parenting values” some just don’t have enough time to teach their children about the right and wrong doings. Only money is not enough for the upbringing of a child. A child needs parents to teach him good values, provide love to them when needed, scold them when they do something wrong. If you support your child in even a one wrong thing, you are making way for many more wrong doings yourself.
Well, I am not trying to disgrace any particular person or party because we can’t decide anything unless we get to know court’s final judgment. But yes I am highly against the Kuldeep barala’s posts about Varnika’s character. Even if he is from barala family, he should just wait for court to decide and not make things miserable for girl and also for his own family member Vikas. In the end, he will be suffered in some way or the other coz “JANTA SAB NOTE KARTI HAI.”
–DIVYA AZAD
Journalist and a blogger
