Bail for Rapist, Violence for Survivor, Laughter from a Politician

A Culture of Impunity Deepens When Politicians Display Arrogance and Public Contempt

December 25, 2025

A former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator convicted of gang rape has received bail, while the survivor protesting the decision was dragged away by police and ridiculed by a state minister. Together, these events show how those in power protect each other by using police to crush protest and mock the pain of ordinary people, turning justice into a show of control and humiliation.

On June 4, 2017, a minor girl visited the home of then BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, seeking help to find a job. He raped her. A week later, she was abducted by three men, sedated, and gang-raped for several days. She and her father filed an FIR on June 20, 2017. The case remained largely unaddressed by authorities for nearly 10 months, until the survivor’s father was allegedly assaulted by associates of the accused, jailed, and later died in police custody under suspicious circumstances.

A trial court sentenced Sengar to life imprisonment for the rape. He is also serving a 10-year sentence related to the custodial death of the survivor’s father. However, eight years later, on December 22, 2025, a division bench of the Delhi High Court suspended Sengar’s sentence and granted him bail on a personal bond of 1.5 million (15 lakh) rupees and three sureties of the same amount.

Following the court’s decision, the survivor and her mother began a protest at India Gate in Delhi. On December 23, both were physically removed by multiple police personnel because the location was deemed an “unauthorised” protest site. The survivor alleged that her mother was thrown on the road and she was denied access to her lawyer. She said the ordeal made her want to end her life, but thoughts of her family stopped her.

On December 24, when reporters asked Uttar Pradesh Panchayati Raj minister Om Prakash Rajbhar about the incident, he responded with a joke, laughing as he commented, “But their home is in Unnao,” as reported by The Telegraph. Video footage shows him amused by his own remark, while some journalists can also be heard laughing along without hesitation.

Political leaders, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, condemned both the bail and the police action, questioning what kind of society treats survivors of sexual violence with brutality while convicts are released on bail.

The sequence of events exposes how power operates in practice rather than how it is described in constitutional language. Democratic systems promise equal protection, but in practice, power often decides who gets listened to, whose claims are doubted, and whose actions are excused. Here, the state’s uneven response reveals a hierarchy of citizenship, where political affiliation determines how institutions behave.

Such moments teach citizens how the system actually works. Justice begins to appear conditional, dependent on status rather than rights. Over time, this weakens the idea of accountability itself. This is how rule-based governance turns into “managed control,” a system where laws still exist but are applied based on status. That’s what we call the collapse of constitutionalism, which means the law no longer protects everyone equally or holds everyone equally accountable. The powerful face fewer consequences, the powerless are punished faster, and the law becomes a tool for controlling people rather than securing their rights.

The apparent lack of procedural fairness is troubling because it weakens public trust in the entire system. People are more likely to accept harsh decisions by courts, police, or other authorities if they believe the process treats them with respect and dignity. In this case, the survivor faced delay, police force, public ridicule and denial of access to legal support, not just from one office or decision, but across multiple institutions meant to protect citizens.

Sociology explains why this pattern is so persistent. Modern states often reinforce existing social hierarchies rather than correct them. This is called “structural reproduction,” the idea that institutions tend to maintain the same unequal order that exists in society. People with authority are protected, while those who resist or speak out are controlled or punished. The survivor’s protest breaks the expected script, which demands that victims stay quiet and endure in private. The state’s response, by dragging her away, mocking her, and limiting her legal access, tries to restore that script through humiliation and exclusion.

Public mockery by a minister plays a crucial social role. It converts a serious demand into an object of humour. This signals to others, including officials, media and bystanders, that empathy is unnecessary. Laughter becomes a social cue, instructing audiences on whose pain matters and whose does not.

Gender intensifies this dynamic. Women who speak publicly about sexual violence often face punishment framed as discipline or disorder. Their credibility is questioned, their presence treated as inconvenience. A male politician’s amusement, by contrast, is absorbed into normal political behaviour. This difference reinforces a social lesson. Authority belongs to those who speak casually, while those who speak from pain must justify their presence.

Psychologically, trauma deepens when institutions repeat or prolong the harm instead of offering protection. Being forced out of public space, denied legal access and laughed at by a representative of the state communicates abandonment. Such experiences erode a person’s sense of safety and agency. The system appears hostile rather than protective.

Humiliation carries lasting psychological effects. It teaches people to withdraw, to stay silent and to avoid institutions altogether. And when humiliation is public and endorsed by authority, its impact reaches others and reinforces fear in the wider community. Silence begins to feel safer than participation.

Taken together, these events reveal how impunity sustains itself. It relies less on secret deals and more on visible signals. Bail for the powerful, force for the protesting citizen and laughter from leadership together define the limits of acceptable dissent.

This pattern must be disrupted, and political authority face consequences for public contempt. Policing must recognise protest as civic action rather than disorder. Most importantly, the state must reaffirm that citizens who seek justice hold equal standing, regardless of status, power or proximity to those who govern.

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