Reserved women and illmannered Men!!!

Mulayam Singh's statement is all over the news channel today. In deed it was a derogatory remark , especially when his own daughter-in-law is a part of the same political setup. Looking at the reactions of the three Yadavs whether it be Mulayam, Laloo or Sharad one sort of understands it as the insecurity of having their vote banks divided. Well, it's true. Why shouldn't the aam junta go for an educated, beautiful(if you really must think of it that way) but hardworking woman as opposed to paan spitting, uncouth and ill mannered netas?


Well I leave that choice to the larger public and will wait till the bill is passed.

But let us come to those women who the Yadavs at least claim to fight for! The women belonging to lower strata, women from minority communities and women who in actuality have never got the privilege they were promised or should have been promised!

I can speak from a rather first hand experience when I went over to Chattisgarh to cover the assembly elections 2009. Like many others when I was covering the rallies of Rahul Ghandhi and Advani, I presumed that the rural women attending them were present only because their husbands or fathers had wanted them to.
In fact I remember clearly asking a group of women who carried posters of Sonia Gandhi whether they knew who she was? I was being a city prude. (Well! I can admit that now.) But to my surprise the women not only knew who she was but in a rather nonchalant tone they answered that they were here only to see Sonia in person. And their real vote would go to BJP! Not wanting to accept defeat promptly, I asked whether their husbands would find that alright? And their reply rightly put me in my place. They said, "Humara aadmi chahe to vote na kare, ghar aur desh mein bahut antar hai." (I don't care if my husband doesn't vote. After all there is a difference between the house and the nation.)

Therefore to take their reality and understanding as granted won't do us any good. In fact if at all one has to unlearn everything so that one can really understand them.

I by noway should be understood as an advocate for the Women's bill. I am merely an advocate of this sex which should now cease to be called the 'other'. Because they are not other, we are not other!

It's important to realise their potential from their own standards. To automatically assume that we know what's good and what's not good for them is a mere act of fooling our own selves. Because all these people who make so much noise in the parliament against the Bill barely have a clue about women! Especially these women whose cause they claim to fight for!

My suggestion to theses politicians would be simple, if teasing is the trouble you think can arise, then try and make your own sex a little more human and a little more civilised . If not then the next Bill after the Women's Bill will be that of Burqa being mandatory for all women politicians! I am sure that bill might just get passed unopposed.

PS (By the way it was BJP that won the Chattishgarh assembly elections in 2009!)

March 24th. 2010.