DUBAI, 14th September 2013 (WAM)-- A local newspaper hailed the verdict that the parents of the "Braveheart", India and the world had been waiting for for nine long months, and said when individuals reach out in a premeditated way towards darkness, wishing to revel in its ominousness, trying to show them the light is an exercise in futility, and thus, entirely dispensable.
"The four perpetrators of the gang rape of a 23-year-old in New Delhi on December 16 last year, have all been sentenced to death," said the Gulf News daily, adding that :"the reality of the "Braveheart" case is that it was a crime of such chilling proportions, that it deserved nothing but the most severe form of punishment."The English paper added that there is an argument for the role of reformation in a society riven by inequalities and deprivation. "Of course, every individual deserves to be given a second chance, but the circumstances for such an approach are necessarily extenuating and always in the context of the crime. These men, however, are not deserving of it."The verdict, according to the paper, "signposts the emerging hope that the crusade against violence against women, an issue that has been a badge of dishonour for India for decades, is finally finding its voice. And this is significant because the rising statistics of crimes against women in India could have easily drowned it. Many dissenters believe that the verdict reflects public opinion, but they fail to understand that in a democracy, public opinion is a powerful enabler of positive change, not a facetious privilege."It said millions of Indians, who were waiting to exhale from December 16, are experiencing the release of a noxiousness that wracked them like a distemper for months. Unabated joy at justice being delivered is coursing through the veins of India, cleansing and healing the festering sores of outrage and grief that erupted as a young girl was raped, beaten and tortured in unspeakable ways, and finally, left to die, with not a shred of mercy in sight to clutch at. In a country with a dismal record of judicial alacrity, the fast-track verdict on the "Braveheart" case is a landmark judgment for many reasons.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2013.
