IN every country, in any language ‘No’ is ‘No’. Be it in English or in Hindi or in Bengali or in Russian or French.

The girl said ‘No’ but the greedy, clammy hands tried to roam over her body, entangling her like a snake.

In self- defence the girl shouted: “No”.

“So the girl is not the culprit. The boys are guilty,” declares lawyer Deepak Sehgal unequivocally in the courtroom. He emphasized that the girl had said ‘No’.

What Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan) said isn’t true only for the courtroom or for the auditorium in the multiplex. The statement holds true for every sphere of life, in every locality, office, tea stall, workplace. When a girl says ‘No’, it’s not an opinion.  It’s her decision. And that is final.

Producer Shoojit Sircar, director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, screenwriter Ritesh Shah and protagonist trio of Tapasee Pannu, Andrea Tariang and Kirti Kulhari andthe man who adds life to the drama Amitabh Bachchan are now not merely the cast and crew of the film, ‘Pink’, they have given the word ‘No’ a new connotation.

When a woman says ‘No’, it means just that. And this lesson is not only for our women. It is for their friends and family, for their children, for their employers, the goons who desire them and even their husbands.

A girl may be a teenager or in her mid youth. She may go to the club, to a party, may have a drink or two with her partners, may even be forced to sell her body or may be a married woman. But if she says ‘NO’ it will mean ‘NO’. You cannot make it yes by force or persuasion. Even if she is a sex worker, her NO is sacrosanct. This holds even for the married woman to her husband. No one has the right to make it yes. The woman has the inviolable right to her own body. If anyone wants to infringe upon that right of the woman, he is guilty of crime.

‘Pink’ has announced strongly that women can no longer be confined within any taboo. Why shouldn’t a single working woman get a flat of her own? If a number of girls rent a room or flat they are always under public surveillance.  Numerous eyes watch their every movement. Gossips, whispers follow them. Where do they go? When do they come back? Why are they so late? Who accompany them? Do their boyfriends come to their apartment? The society around them goes on sleuthing. Even in cosmopolitan cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, the same thing happens. If the inmates are boys, there is no problem: they can stay alone or in groups. They are free to do anything and everything. The guardians of our society do not mind.

Do you remember Suzette? The mainstream media referred to her as the ‘Park Street rape victim’. The honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal, yes a female Chief Minister, declared that it was an “orchestrated” case. Naturally the police followed her orders and did nothing initially. Much before the probe, the verdict had been announced. No crime had occurred, the CM had proclaimed. But a police officer, ironically, again a woman, investigated and stated that the gang-rape did happen. Suzette was raped.

Strikingly similar happenings have been brought forward by Soojit, Aniruddha and Bachhan in many ways. If boys go to the pub, that is okay. if they get drunk, no vice would touch them. If a woman goes to the pub, the whole society is aghast! “What is happening to our society?  What is happening?” they cry out, as if the sky had fallen!

In this wretched country, in a society governed by the laws of “Manu”, the women have to survive inside the precincts of a big ‘NO’.  Can I go out in the evenings? ‘NO’. Am I permitted to invite male friends to my home? ‘NO’. That would earn you a bad name. After all, you are a good girl of a reputable family!

Many a girl’s world is surrounded by NOs only, and no ‘ayes’. Don’t wear skimpy dresses. That would provoke men. Yes, this is what the famous actor -turned Trinamool Congress MLA said. "For their own safety, women foreign tourists should not wear short dresses and skirts... Indian culture is different from the western (culture),” says Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of Culture.

Blaming mobile phones for "corrupting" girls, a panchayat in an Aligarh village had announced a complete ban on use of the devices by girls younger than 18. Families of violators will be punished by having to sweep village roads.

Guilt does not lie with men, guilt lies with you. Your dress has provoked the men to be naughty. You are married, so don’t look at other men except your husband. It’s another thing that your husband goes frolicking with other women, but you should always be virtuous. A man can be polygamous, not you. In a male dominated society, it is his birthright.

If a woman leaves a pub at midnight that means her character is questionable. The boys who were in the same pub with her would have the right to tease or molest that woman as she is considered ‘easy’.

After a long pointless wait of fifteen months, Suzette appeared on TV screen, no, her face was not blurred, and her face was not pale. It was the face of a rebel.“Don't distort my voice, don't blur my picture," she insisted. “That I am a rape victim is not my shame, those who raped me should be put to shame”. Suzette did not survive long. She died soon after.

They are all gone. Suzette, Nirbhaya, Aparajita -- the college student who was gang-raped and murdered in Kamduni in West Bengal, the schoolstudent of Dhupguri,North Bengal, the daughter of a taxi driver from Bihar who was gang-raped in Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas, West Bengal. None of them had survived.There was much furore. But did these killings purify us? Have we understood the message their death has conveyed? “My life should Not go in vain; let my death awaken the whole country to new values”- each corpse seemed to cry out! Did we hear them?

Why is a girl branded as characterless upon one pretext or another? The argument of a rapist is the typical male argument. She is a bad girl, characterless girl because she goes to pub. That means if she goes to the temple before that day or after that day then she can be treated as woman of virtue. Then the place determines character! If man meets a girl at noon she is a good girl but if she sees her passing by at midnight she is a bad girl. Lawyer Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan) wonders if the strength of a girl’s character varies according to place and time!

That the powerful politicians use the police to frame false cases against political opponents is a common experience in West Bengal. In ‘Pink’, a forged FIR is lodged against the victim herself. She is implicated under various false offences, including attempt to murder. She is arrested, detained and harassed by the police at the behest of the offenders who are wealthy, powerful, and politically connected. Her friend’s male partner deserts her as she had fallen to disrepute. The girl loses her job.

The victim’s position is helpless. She is picked up and abused again in a car by the same people. The voice of justice cries in the wilderness. The police officer refuses to register her complaint: That particular area, you see, does not come under my jurisdiction. The power of the mighty is so formidable that no lawyer dares to stand in her defence.

And it isn’t just that is what is happening here, in Bengal? The local police refuse to file complaints against molesters, if they are connected to the ruling party. This is almost a daily occurrence.

After being brutally raped, the taxi driver’s daughter accompanied by her parents turned up at Madhyamgram police station and lodged a complaint in the evening. On the way back around 8.30 PM, the same assailants stopped the cycle-van on which they were travelling. They abducted the girl after pushing the father on to the road.

Horrifying, but true.

Yes, the police trying to fabricate a false case against the victim at the behest of the accused is nothing new in Bengal. But these are supposedly political moves aimed at eliminating political opposition from Bengal. But ‘Pink’ shows us that patriarchy is identically ruthless and inhumane. The rapist’s voice carries the logic laid down by Manuvadi values.