80-year-old former philosophy professor and activist Roop Rekha Verma was part of a PIL to the Supreme Court against the remission orders for 11 men convicted for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano in 2002, and lends her support to fight communal tensions and gender injustices
Roop Rekha Verma, Activist, former acting vice chancellor, University of Lucknow
Image: Amit Verma
Roop Rekha Verma confesses that she had made up her mind to “speak with a restrictive terminology and voice” during the interview with Forbes India.
“But I cannot,” says the 80-year-old activist, who was the former acting vice chancellor of the Lucknow University, where she taught and headed the department of philosophy. “To make sure I’m not in conflict with myself, perforce, I have to keep doing what I am doing,” she says, her voice steady, calm and resolute. It is the same voice that has made the country sit up and take notice so many times in the past, when Verma, in a simple act of gumption, stood up for what she believes in.
In January, the Supreme Court (SC) quashed remission orders by the State of Gujarat to grant premature release to 11 men convicted for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano in 2002. When Verma heard about the remission order, she said, as per a report in the Times of India, that standing with rapists and murderers and glorifying them is the “highest form of obscenity in the democracy”. Thus, the Lucknow resident became a co-petitioner in the public interest litigation (PIL) filed with the SC that led to the apex court’s judgment.
About two-odd years ago, Verma stood surety for journalist Siddique Kappan as a condition of his bail. Kappan had been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police when he was on his way to report on a gang rape of a teenage Dalit girl by four upper caste men in Hathras. He was being tried under sedition and the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Verma did not know the young journalist, but felt that what happened to him was against the constitutional value of freedom of speech and expression. Maybe he is guilty, maybe not, she tells me. By standing surety, she was only helping him get bail, which was his right. He would still have to answer to the courts.
(This story appears in the 22 March, 2024 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)