The latest advocate against dress codes for women — the RSS. Contrary to its rather ambiguous stance towards women’s issues so far, in the latest issue of its mouthpiece Organiser, the RSS argues against ad-hoc reactions to issues of women’s safety, including dress codes and beefing up police presence on streets. The saffron outfit’s reaction comes following the Imrana controversy and the several rapes in Delhi over the past few months. Expressing concern over the deteriorating conditions, the article draws attention to the poor sex ratio in several states, referring to the Mahabharata where the Kauravas paid the price for insulting a woman. A decade ago, a Marxist principal in a Kolkata college had struck off the salwar kameez from the list of clothes that could be worn to college and had incurred the wrath of the liberal intelligentsia. The RSS article, on the other hand, stresses the need to look at the Indian woman in the ‘‘changing context’’. It argues that the solution to rising crime against women is not enforcing a dress code. ‘‘Dress codes for women will not do. Nor will it help to post four extra police personnel in road corners.While there is a dire need for safeguards inside and outside the home, the law and judiciary would have to be seen to be delivering justice within a reasonable timeframe of crime. And the punishment should be eye for eye, tooth for tooth,’’ it says, calling for a concerted campaign ‘‘to bring about an attitudinal change in society, especially in men towards women’’. Though critics are surprised, observers feel it’s illustrative of the growing realisation within the Sangh about the ‘‘importance of women’’ in the social and political set-up. ‘‘Though we have never differentiated among the sexes, our views in this regard have not found much of media space,’’ said an RSS source, alleging a ‘‘conspiracy by the so-called liberals, who want to ensure that the Sangh is projected as a retrograde organisation’’.
