Tags:
Journalism of Courage
There have been various and wondrous reasons trotted out by politicians for keeping women out of electoral politics even while every major political party swears by the Women8217;s Reservation Bill. The Bill, incidentally, was introduced in Parliament under the Deve Gowda government and hasn8217;t moved since then. Some maintain that women must not be given tickets because their 8220;winnability8221; is in doubt, others say they must be kept out because they wear their hair short. But BJP president Kushabhau Thakre has come up with the best excuse of them all. When asked in Surat on Wednesday as to why his party did not have more women on its list of candidates this time, the BJP president explained 8212; although not quite in these words 8212; that he was actually doing them a favour by not fielding them. His party, it seems, does not want its women members to wage an 8220;unequal fight in a vitiated environment8221; and would like to protect them from the 8220;mafia8221; fielded by other parties.
What a convenient position to adopt,really! Look how the patriarch patronises his 8220;sisters8221;. Notice the avuncular unctuousness in his statements, its sweet-tongued hypocrisy. Since Indian politics will always have its share of criminals and since the Women8217;s Bill is unlikely to ever see the light of day, you now have enough justification to keep women out of mainstream politics 8212; for their own good, of course. There is no great desire expressed here to fight the mafia, or take measures to ensure that women candidates can campaign in relative safety. The criminals, in fact, provide a wonderful opportunity to postpone addressing the issue at hand, postpone it until the whole, inconvenient question of sharing power with women will somehow disappear from the political arena.
