The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in New Delhi, on the night of December 16, has shaken the Indian government as never before. The young woman was raped in a moving, thickly curtained bus by six heavily drunk men who brutalized and tortured the victim, along with her male friend for about an hour, and then threw them out from the moving bus.

While her male friend has gotten away with physical injuries, the female victim is still battling for life in a Delhi hospital. So serious are her injuries that the attending doctors in the Safdarjung Hospital have said that they have never seen such serious physical harm to a rape victim ever before in their career.

The incident has triggered a tsunami of protests not just in the Indian capital but all over the country. Protestors, largely young students from schools and colleges, have squatted on the Rajpath in Raisina Hills, very close to the seat of power of the government of India. The protests have continued for days and there is no sign of a letup.

The Delhi police have behaved foolishly and unsuccessfully tried to evict the protestors, who at times turned violent and volatile. The Indian government is faced with a tinderbox situation.

The pro-active Indian media fuelled the fire further by deep-focusing on other rape cases that usually receive only routine coverage in other parts of India.

One case in the northeastern state of Tripura has also spontaneously become a mass movement, powered not only by the people of India but also the very powerful and ubiquitous Indian media. The Tripura rape case, where a 37-year-old woman was gang-raped, stripped, and battered in public, triggered national media coverage which would have been unthinkable if the Delhi gang rape case hadn't created a national outrage.

Suddenly, the national media was awash with similar horror stories of rapes from the states of Rajasthan, Odisha, Maharashtra, and another one in Delhi, a shocking case of a three-year-old child drugged and raped at a playschool by the owner's husband.

The breathtaking events after the news of the Delhi gang rape came out left the United Progressive Alliance government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tottering. No such case had done so much harm in so little time to a central government before.

The Delhi rape case dominated the print and electronic media, much to the discomfiture of the Indian government that is in the midst of a hectic diplomatic calendar with the India-ASEAN 20th anniversary commemorative summit, the first state visit of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and the December 24 visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin all taking place in New Delhi.

It is extremely rare when the pride of the nation is blown into smithereens internationally before an international audience. This happened when the Delhi gang rape case exploded full blast into the face of the Indian government and the government had no clue how to handle it.

Worse, the ham-handed nature in which the Delhi police went about quelling the protestors on Rajpath, an impromptu, apolitical crowd solely comprising of young students, completed the sorry script for the Indian government.

The protestors, driven in hordes to the Rajpath thanks to the vibrant social media network like Facebook and Twitter, have been demanding prompt justice for the Delhi gang rape victim. They have been by and large successful in their spontaneous apolitical movement as the government has announced institution of a Commission of Inquiry, headed by former chief justice of India JS Verma, on its panel to probe the event, examine whether it could have been avoided, and to recommend measures to prevent a repeat of such ghastly crimes.

The government has given indications that it would soon be amending its laws and for the first time be bringing the accused of the "rarest of the rare" category of rape cases under the ambit of capital punishment.

Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh went on record saying thus: "Fast-track courts will be set up with day-to-day hearing. The case will be started in the next 48-72 hours. We have made the commitment in the morning. We are going to make Delhi safer."

But these announcements are being viewed as mere promises from politicians.

The question is not whether the rapists will be tried summarily or whether they will receive capital punishment. The question is how serious is the Indian government in making the country safe for its women.

The author is a New Delhi-based journalist-author and strategic analyst. bhootnath004@yahoo.com