Illustration/Uday Mohite

Last Sunday, I participated in the Carter Road protest against the rape of minors in Kathua in J&K, and Unnao in UP. Hundreds of people turned up, with homemade placards, in response to a poster calling for the protest, that named no organisation or individual. So, at the venue, a large and diverse number of people claimed to have organised it. It was inspiring to see such a large turn-out. The sense of anger and betrayal was palpable — against a government that actively defended the rapists, instead of promptly punishing them. In Unnao, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, accused of raping a minor girl, is himself a BJP MLA. In Kathua, after an eight-year-old girl was gang-raped and murdered, BJP ministers Chaudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga joined a rally to defend the rapists, and later resigned only under duress.