Just watched the BBC video ‘India’s Daughter.’ Really don’t know from where to begin at the nonsense that is flowing out of the lawyers in India who are defending the rapists.

One of them says, a girl going out in the dark is not part of our culture. Doesn’t he remember that our culture teaches us to respect a woman? Does our culture say, rape any woman who is out on the streets alone or as he claims ‘stranger’? And never mind if the rapists violate the girl to the extent of ripping her private parts with an iron rod.

Where have such sick lawyers earned their law degrees from? Those institutions should either be closed down or the licenses that allowed them to practice law should be revoked.

These legal practitioners should be taken to task for making comments that tarnish the image of India as a nation.

There are millions of women who work late in order to bring food on the table for their dependents. Are all these women inviting rape?

Why are the lawyers not pointing fingers at those who are supposed to keep law and order? There are hundreds of more such men with perverted minds lurking on the streets looking for soft targets?

Why are they not asking for them to be taken to task for having failed to protect the many women who are raped?

When scores of cameras could be installed on the streets of India to ensure the safety of the US president, why can’t these be installed to protect our women? Isn’t the government responsible for the safety of women?

The BBC documentary has been banned in India. I cannot fathom why. My only hope is that those who have banned it did so with the intent of protecting women. From where I stand, it looks more like an effort to sweep this problem under the carpet.

This does not seem to be the India I had grown up in.

Silvester Bonny Mascarenhas

Manama