Punish the village council the same way

The Herald reports:

Two sisters in India were sentenced to be raped as “punishment” for their brother running away with a married woman from a higher caste in the latest caste incident to shock the country.

Meenakshi Kumari, who is 23, and her sister, 15, would then be paraded naked with their faces blackened through the streets, according to a ruling from the all-male village council.

The sisters have petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to be protected from the so-called “eye-for-an-eye” ruling from the village council in Uttar Pradesh state, 48km from the capital, New Delhi.

It’s the year 2015, and I can’t believe stuff like this is still happening.

Khap panchayats are the archaic systems of village justice that exist in much of rural India. They are dominated by the Jat caste and are almost always run by male village elders. The “courts” often order honour killings and sexual “punishments” and are frequently allowed to operate completely outside the Indian legal system, despite the Supreme Court labelling them “kangaroo courts”.

Here’s an idea. If you can’t get rid of these kanagaroo courts entirely, then how about announcing that any members of a village council that vote for a sentence that causes shame to their country, then have that sentence applies to them. An eye for an eye indeed.

So if these men are going to vote for rape as a punishment for dishonour, then see how they like it. I suspect after a couple of times where they have to endure their own sentences, they’ll stop making such outrageous decisions.

And no I’m not serious, but I am appalled.