IF RAPE is a crime as it outrages the modesty of women, then what would you call outraging the sense of quietude of men? Are not women equally at fault in drawing innocent men into animalistic behaviour? Now, whether it is couch-laying incidents involving decoy journalism and actors, or incidents of merriment turning into excesses and depravity in the thick of Buddha Jayanti Park, when would we learn to look at the whole picture and not isolate its outcome as another crime? We have known and seen young boys and girls trying to reach the most desolate parts of a public park or in a preserved ancient site in order to perform a good hug or two without being noticed by outsiders. But teasing eyes of outsiders never leave them. Reaching a desolate place in that sense is more insecure than secure because help would not be forthcoming when needed. I am sure these boys and girls know it very well and still they take the chance. Rape and other inhuman awkwardness that results from this owes much to their own doing than it is to the perpetrator of the crime.

The question remains - are men always supposed to maintain an absolute and resolute sense of morality and righteousness even when the bait of promiscuousness is laid before them? I suppose as ordinary human beings it will be impossible for any man to keep himself in his senses when an opportunity of promiscuity lays itself bare before him. Let me put it this way, is it equally wrong to have raped the morality of a man when the opposite sex throws itself out in the open, free of all bonds and inhibitions; inciting, daring and calling on masculinity to act. Therefore, there has to be a distinction between a rape where women folk abet the crime by making themselves available unrestrained, challenging men to have them. A father raping his daughter or a neighbour having a fling with the children next door, a drunk lurching in the dark looking for easy prey, a man of wealth hoodwinking a slum girl to compromise for some goodies, such incidents can result in serious rape. But where men are caught unaware and drawn to passions suddenly aroused being presented with something inciting that leads them to act without intending to do so, should it be met with a different punishment?

In this context it is also important to see that rape and other such crimes can not be deterred merely by penal codes and building public opinion against it (public in any case is the same men and women whose urges make rape possible). The way out is to build strong religious institutions. More than law and social pressure, the dread of god works. Unfortunately in our eagerness to proclaim ourselves educated we have thrown religion into the dust bin. We look at those visiting temples, churches and mosques deprecatingly. Only strong religious education can keep the free flow of our sexual desires in check. Failing this, the incidents of rape will continue to be the order of the day.