Acharya Prashant addresses the question of why the rape of a woman gathers more publicity than her murder. He observes that while many women are murdered every day, their deaths rarely make headlines. In contrast, rape is treated as sensational. He points out that in a rape and murder case, the media in Europe would likely report it as a murder, with the rape mentioned as a detail. However, in India, he estimates that 80% of the public outcry is because of the rape, and only 20% is due to the murder. This, he argues, indicates that the public is not genuinely interested in the welfare of women but is instead fascinated by the act of rape itself, which reveals a problematic societal approach towards women's sexuality and their bodies. The speaker highlights the hypocrisy in this selective outrage by listing numerous other injustices against women that society largely ignores. These include denying women education, forcing them to stop working after marriage, unsafe work environments, death during childbirth, and the objectification of young girls in reality shows. He emphasizes the grave issue of female foeticide, questioning who murdered the millions of missing girls in the country. He asserts that the people themselves are responsible for these murders, which are committed within the sanctity of their own homes, and this is why these deaths are not discussed publicly. Acharya Prashant concludes that the public demand for retribution, such as hanging a perpetrator, is merely a way to find an easy scapegoat and satisfy a blood-thirsty conscience without addressing the root problems. He defines true justice not as revenge but as 'justness' or 'rightness'—the right state of things. He states that real justice cannot be delivered in a courtroom alone; it must begin with a fundamental shift at the level of individual consciousness. When individuals are just to their own lives, a just society with minimal exploitation will naturally follow.
