He
never really seems to care what the English speaking “enlightened class” thinks
of his speeches
COL R
HARIHARAN @colhari2 | POLITICS | 6-minute read | 08-06-2015
Perhaps
irked at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s highly successful tour of Bangladesh, marginalized Congress spokesperson was quick
to brand Modi’s appreciative remark about Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's zero tolerance
to terrorism and resolve “to fight terror, despite being a woman" as
sexist. And of course he traced it to Modi’s RSS’ “bigoted, misogynist” roots and
to his marital status which was opaque till recently.
Modi probably never realized that of
all the things he said or did in his 40-hour trip to Bangladesh, scoop artists
in New Delhi would pitch upon this remark to brand him as sexist. But then,
Modi never really seems to care what the English speaking “enlightened class”
thinks of his speeches full of homespun wisdom structured to appeal to the
average Indian, including many women steeped in local tradition.
Modi’s successful equation with this
class is because comes from a humble background so similar to aam janata. It
would have never struck to this class of people to analyse Modi’s remark is
sexist or not. Because their thoughts are in roti, kapara, makan struggle in
which gender does not matter. It is because of this social milieu even Mahatma
Gandhi could get away with his condescending advice to women. He asked woman to “cease to consider herself the object of
man’s lust. The remedy is more in her hands than man’s. She must refuse to
adorn herself for men, including her husband, if she will be an equal partner
with man. I cannot imagine Sita even wasting a single moment on pleasing Rama
by physical charms.”
This statement, made in 1921, would
now be definitely branded as sexist. It shows the difference between the “form”
and “content” that has always permeated our political discourse. Our
politicians are happy with “form” rather than “content”; to them netagiri
is all about using the right words to appeal to all regardless of their
personal conductor beliefs. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand the Congress
getting agitated over Modi’s remark. When the UPA was in power, no Congress
leader had the courage to meet the outraged youth who had brought Delhi to a
standstill for three days in protest against the gang rape and murder of a young
woman travelling in bus in the heart of Delhi.
So much for the Congress bleeding
hearts.
And Congress has its own male
chauvinist fringe. All of us remember when Ms Sonia Gandhi introduced 30
percent reservation for women in party echelons in 2013, a women’s delegation
met and asked her to stop exploitation of women by the party leaders. A media
report said the women “urged
Soniaji to stop this, no matter how big price the party has to pay. The price
could indeed be high as some senior leaders do have a reputation of womanising
and formal complaints have been filed against many.”
The problem is Twitterati’s comments
reflect only a section of the society on which our netas are probably not
dependent upon for their survival. Modi’s
#despitebeingawoman remark is common place in our political parlance regardless
of party affiliations and even accepted by many women because male chauvinism
has strong roots in society. That is why we have high court judges advising
women to dress modestly to avoid becoming the victim of “eve teasing” - the peculiar
Indian English coinage - a sexist cover up of plain and simple harassment of
women.
Senior police officers who cannot
provide security for women under their watch tell women not to “loiter” on the
streets in the night. As usual some politicians from UP out do all others; they
say women cannot be raped without consent. For them rape is always consensual.
Period. These so called ‘netas’ not only get away with such remarks but get
elected; there is little protest in their constituencies because male
chauvinism is firmly rooted in our family, community, and society.
Let us not fool ourselves that
women’s liberation is here here and now.
The whole #Despitebeingawoman episode
showed the desperation and the inability of the Congress to respond to Prime
Minister Modi’s continuing success abroad.
Modi’s remark about Sheikh Hasina has
again raised two age-old issues: competency of women in leadership positions
and to lead the nation to fight against terrorism. This is surprising because
gender equity struggle of Indian women started well before independence, when
women were cloistered and confined to the house.
Even when we had ordinary women
breaking the shackles to strike at the male bastions in medical profession,
political leadership and business. This
was happening all over the world. A good example is Annie Besant, the Irish
woman who led the struggle for equal franchise for women, came to India to lead
the Congress. From then on, women have been clawing their way to the top. In
the modern era, from Golda Meir to Margaret Thatcher to Indira Gandhi to
Bandaranaikes to Angela Merkel to Dilma Roussef women at the helm of their
nations have outperformed their male counterparts.
Still #Despitebeingawoman continues
to be in common usage!
Has Sheikh Hasina really proved
better in fighting terrorists? The doughty Bangladesh leader has survived four
decades of turbulent politics of the country marked by violence. Her rise to
the leadership of the Awami League itself came unexpectedly when her father
President Mujibur Rahman and her four siblings were massacred on August 15,
1975 four years after the country became independent.
After her rival Begum Khaleda Zia
formed a coalition with fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami to gain power in 1991
Islamic extremism staged a comeback despite its suspect credentials during the
freedom struggle. It became entrenched in the body politics of the
country. And Sheikh Hasina led the Awami
League struggle against the rise of Islamic extremism and military rule
continued despite a number of violent attacks to disrupt her campaign. It was marked by at least two major
assassination attempts in 2004 and a period in exile.
In 2008 she returned from exile to
lead her party to a thumping victory in the 2009 elections. Since coming to
power she had systematically dismantled the Islamic extremist and terror groups
and successfully prosecuting their leaders unrelentingly. She retained power in
2014 elections and practically wiped out Islamic extremism though unfortunately
it seems to have found refuge in pockets of West Bengal.
As long as Sheikh Hasina is in power,
Jihadi terrorists who had used the country as a take off point to strike at
India will be held at bay.
There is no doubt about it. Pakistan
has produced Malala Yusufjai and Bangladesh Shekh Hasina who have earned their
spurs in fighting terrorism in their own way. I am still looking for our own
Veer Naari in the frontline of our fits-and-starts fight against terrorism. Where
is she?
Courtesy: India Today Opinion portal
DailyO
No comments:
Post a Comment