By Subhash Chopra
At Independence the Constitution may have given equal rights and vote to men and women but some men, including top ministers at Central and state-level, haven’t accepted that equality when it comes to their gut feelings.The laughter of Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury prompted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims on the benefits and launch of Aadhaar in the Rajya Sabha early this month brought out the naked reality in full glare.
Before The Prime Minister could gather his riposte to Ms Chowdhury, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu snapped at her: “What is wrong with you? Do you need to see a doctor?” Her fault: how dare she laugh at the PM’s speech? The PM also duly obliged Naidu with a holy reference by saying: “Ramayan (TV) serial ke baad aisi hansi sunne ka saubhagya aaj jaake mila hai.” (Got the first chance after a long while to hear such laughter since the Ramayan TV serial)
Ultra- loyalist Union Minister Kiren Rijiju promptly got on to his Twitter handle and posted a supportive video clip from the Ramayan TV serial mentioned by the Prime Minister in the Rajya Sabha. The clip was deleted equally promptly after Renuka Chowdhury’s threat to move a breach of privilege notice against Rijiju.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad took up the matter with RS Chairman Naidu. Soon other Congress leaders were up in arms, demanding an apology over the Prime Minister’s remarks. Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev said:” I express my shock at the utterly sexist and downright distasteful comment against a Member of Parliament, made by none less than the Prime Minister of India. I feel that the attitude and comment in the Upper House of Parliament directed at Renuka Chowdhury belittles the office of the PM and amounts to an insult to each and every woman in the country.”
As expected the PM’s loyal soldiers on Government benches had lustily cheered and thumped their desks reinforcing their leader’s disapproval of Renuka’s laughter. A livid Renuka later said in Goa: “I have been in Parliament 32 years till date. If I could be told by no less than the Prime Minister of the country that my laughing has parallels with a supposedly negative character, then the misogyny carries on from Ramayan.
“After all the character they drew a parallel with (Surupnakha), what was her sin? And still she was punished…. The (ruling) BJP hasn’t realised that we have turned round and bitten them… because women in the country have changed. Since the incident women are forming Surupnakha groups, saying they do not want to be Sitas anymore.”
Surupnakha, as the Ramayan legend goes, had her nose sliced with a sword by Lakshman for daring to cast a testing eye on him and was branded Rakshasi (female demon), thereby shown her place as a woman by a rudely righteous Lakshman!
Chowdhury said she didn’t need permission to laugh after being a five-time MP. Speaking on the sidelines of the Difficult Dialogues gender equality conference at Panaji, she said: “Earlier the land laws favoured men. The laws were later changed, but the perception they created about women remained. Even if a woman laughs in Parliament today it is seen as unbecoming of her. Some men have this perception of women, but men who make laws in Parliament cannot have such perceptions. They are expected to give the country direction with their status. But if they continue to behave in this manner, how many years will it take us to give the girl child and females the equality they deserve,” she asked.
The ever so numerous spectacles of male MPs and MLAs throwing chairs and hurling mikes in Parliament and state legislatures hardly draws such caustic and deeply insulting strictures from House Speakers.
The issue is sure to come up as a hot potato in and outside the Rajya Sabha next month when Parliament reassembles in March.
Also in Goa the same week, horror upon horror, state Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar voiced his “fear that girls have started drinking beer!” He wasn’t speaking of young school girls, he was referring to grown-up college or university going adult women. He was patting himself for having issued directions to state authorities which led to the arrest of 170 people for peddling drugs last August. He was recounting anecdotes from his years as a student at IITMumbai. He said drugs were no longer a new phenomenon. He knew of a group that was involved in ganja and pornographic photos on the campus years ago.
Parrikar went on: “I have begun to fear now, because even the girls have started drinking beer. So barrier of that tolerance limit is being crossed. Not all of them. I am not referring to this crowd. I am just referring.”
Clearly the Chief Minister was mixing porn and ganja with beer in his holy drive to save girls. Apparently beer is all right for grown up boys but not for girls who don’t have a mind of their own and need protection at every stage of their life!
Stung by adverse social media reactions, Parrikar returned almost a week later to the old excuse that the media had twisted his words. He had referred only to “school and college students,” he claimed. But the excuse won’t wash in this day and age of smart phones and video cameras.
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