|
|
|
|
|
Sonia Gandhi might argue vociferously for 33 per cent reservations and even prove her commitment to this currently-in-fashion cause by inducting a couple of more women in the Congress Working Committee. But really, do we need more women politicians?
Illustration by Siddhartha Mitra
Five good reasons why we don't:
The MMS factor: they could be chronic victims of the Mamta Mood Swing factor and might just create more chaos. Imagine a nation being run by a band of 'pubertic' girl-women who are hapless victims of their hormonal cycles. Naturally then, emotional stress and strain become an inevitable part of behaviour and the logical political reaction is always a tantrum, a fit, a sulk or a pout. Want a ministerial berth, pout. Want to protest against a policy, scream. Feeling neglected, order a bandh. And when the cycle settles down, just sit back in somnambulant repose, the nation and its people be damned.
The JAIDS (Jayalalitha Acquire India Syndrome) effect: They could be infected with the JAIDS virus and treat the whole nation as a Poes Garden extension - just another part of a private jagir. To be cultivated or left fallow, at personal whim and fancy. For a private wedding, they could colonise the entire nation, cut off all the goats, cook up all the greens and serve it on a platter: all of India, meant to be swallowed without a burp. Or else, they could treat it as one big departmental story, picking up one thousand and one goodies, without an IOU in return. Who's afraid of the Vigilance Department anyway?
The rancid smell of home-made Rabri all over. The nation might just get suffused with the kitchen-sink politics practised by proxy women who are pushed I as dummy candidates. That is, whenever the 'pati parmeshwars' are forced to go on a sabbatical for erstwhile misdemeanours. Managing the nation might just become synonymous with managing the kitchen: just one more deed that must be done. But only after the cows have been milked, the chickens have been fed, the vegetables have been chopped and the brood put to rest.
The Big B brigade: The Big Behenji brigade might just bring about the Talibanisation/Sushma Swarajisation of India with their brouhaha about 'bharatiya sanskriti' and 'bharatiya naari'. End result: India pushed back one million BC, with liberalisation, modernisation, globalisation become taboo words. A nation of sati savitris without slacks? Hardly palatable.
The women-with-balls phobia: If more and more women became politicians and actually began to find a voice, frame policies, issue orders and govern, they would naturally have to shed their 'fair sex frailty'. Quite unfair. The gender equilibrium would be turned turtle, patriarchy would give way to fierce matriarchy and men would naturally have to rest content as the second sex. Nah! Tokenism - a mere two per cent reservation - is only permissible in this centuries-old battle of the sexes.
No, we are quite sure we don't need more women politicians. What we need are many more Miss Indias, Madhuri Dixits and Maqbool Fidas to ensure that Men keep coming from Mars and women keep hailing from Venus.
Nikhat Kazmi is the film critic for The Times of India, New Delhi.
|
|
|
|
Women should, most certainly, be kept away from politics. There is an old saying in Hindi that the root cause of all trouble is: jar, jameen and joru (wealth, land and women).
Illustration by Siddhartha Mitra
Of course there is a flip side to it. Women unlike the OBCs, who now adorn the Lok Sabha, will provide much-required glamour to the House, especially given the prospects of more and more rejected and retired actresses and society prima donnas with their backless cholis clawing intensely to capture respectability through an entry into Parliament.
There was a time when Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, Indira Gandhi and Tarakeshwari Sinha provided glamour to the House. Ram Manohar Lohia would read out Urdu couplets to Sinha in the Lok Sabha: "ankhen to dikhati ho, joban to dikhao, jo maal achha hai, alag bandh rakha hai" (don't glare at me like this, instead let me have a peak at your cleavage, you have tied away neatly your valuable stuff). Incidentally she was a member of Lohia's Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP).
Former Union Minister and erstwhile Telugu Desam Party MP Renuka Chowdhry called ex-film actress-turned-Rajya Sabha member Jayaprada a "bimbo".
In fact in the Congress it is a known fact that the surest way for a woman seeking political recognition and position is either to be the wife, daughter or sister of an influential leader or else to "please" an influential leader who could promote your case. Read former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's book, The Insider, to check this out.
If anybody had any illusions about the Bharatiya naris of the Bharatiya Janata Party you can pick and choose from among them. A leading lady has been linked to several politicians, from a senior Cabinet Minister to a couple of former Chief Ministers from the Jat heartland and even to Romesh Sharma, whose brother claims that he used to arrange secret rendezvous between the two frequently. Then there is the sati savitri looking wearing Gujarati behn whose claim to fame is that she is so dependent on a Gujarat leader that he even selects her petticoat and bra for the day.
As for the Communists, you have Gita Mukherjee of the Communist Party of India, a woman with distinguished career of political struggle, who is supposed to have led her early life among the poor in working class environs. But mention a word about OBCs and Gitadi gets all het up. Another comrade is equally dismissive of the OBCs. Recently, when former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Bhagwati Devi was speaking on women's issues at a meeting arranged by some classy women, she along with other English-speaking cohorts sat gossiping and giggling hardly listening to a word. Unlike our Marx-spouting comrade, an ex-Army general's daughter, Bhagwati Devi started off as a stone crusher.
The more you have these floozies in Parliament as against the rising tide of the OBCs in the Lok Sabha the more certain one can be dump serious issues involving the peoples real problems.
Faraz Ahmed is the bureau chief of Meantime.
|
|
|
|
|
WHAT OUR VISITORS SAY:
|
|
Well, well, well.
I stumbled upon this site once while I was surfing, the topic in the inaugural issue was really good. It pleasantly surprised me that now people were using language more openly and getting hung up about taboos. but today, I noticed something. why are all your topics centered around the theme of male bashing?
Agreed topics like those are controversial and people enjoy reading them but try bashing the ladies for a change (not literally, of course). In the first article, I see the lady crying that the indian male doesn't show much interest, but come to think about it....do you help??? Do set the atmosphere? You may go out and watch a couple of english movies and have this idea of lovemaking that to your own counterpart is most probably alien! think about it....
The second one, "are indian men driving women to lesbianism", i liked the beginning tone of the first article and was really nice but moving on...lady, no one drives anyone to lesbianism, you want sex, you can get sex out there, there's no one stopping you. if you find that you like indulging in lesbian activities AS WELL, have you maybe thought that you might be bisexual??? Give it some thought!
AND MY GOD, mama's boy! y'know, the clan of guys you're probably talking about are the ones probably over the age of 27 or 28 with no lives of their own. you want a guy look for a guy that has a frickin' life! Don't let your sorrows out cuz you think pick the wrong bloody guy! You want fun, here's the traits you should look for: intelligence (street smart not book smart), independence, clubber and most importantly, someone who can stay out (no, who DOES stay out) after at least 2 AM!
My advice to some of the guys writing those articles is:
Go Get a Life, and if this offends you...go to your mama's 'palloo' and cry!
Losers!
Ali Rizv
rizvi.ali@canada.com
|
How do I subscribe? I'm East Indian, female, and would like to read your e-zine.
Asha
Oshkoshgb@hotmail.com
|
|
