The hemlines of control

The campus protest, however, was benign compared to the violence unleashed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, who disrupted a beauty pageant in Vadodara last year. A boy with long hair was nearly lynched by the violent mob while models and participants of the show had to be escorted to safety.

Has the moral policing worked? A loud `no’ reverberates across the MSU campus, especially from the hipper Fine Arts and Home Science faculties. But it has succeeded in giving the campus a issue that everybody loves to talk about. The National Students Union of India, All India Democratic Students Union (AIDSU) and women’s organisations have launched a counter campaign to say that girls should be allowed to wear what they feel like.

Nandini Manjrekar of the University Forum for Women finds the campaign highly condemnable, and says it’s not restricted to MSU alone. “It must be categorically said that girls don’t invite trouble by what they wear,” she stresses. Studies have shown that burqa-clad and `ordinarily clad’ women are just as vulnerable to sexual harassment and rape as are their `fashionable’ counterparts.

Radhika of Cops Group, whose fashion show — held clandestinely in a house — ended in a disaster before the winners could be announced, says, “Nobody should interfere in personal matters. It should be entirely left to the girls. Young girls like to show off. Those who can carry themselves well should wear short clothes.”

Such responses have sobered Mehul Lakhani, who was part of the topless protest, into admitting, “We will take a different route in convincing girls.” He feels that “Minis are OK, but not micro-minis. You can’t move around sporting an eight-inch rag around your waist.”

Then why did he bare his chest? “We wanted to show what the campus would look a few years from now if we did not stem the rot.” Immediately, he changes his tune. “Actually, we were protesting against the vice-chancellor, who said that beauty is to be seen and not to be touched. Had the vice-chancellor said it was not possible to impose a dress code without arguing with us, maybe we would not have done it.” The students erred in not demanding a dress code for boys as well, he feels.

National vice-president of ABVP, Shirish Kulkarni delinks the parishad from the campaign. “Though we are not disowning Mayur Patel, we are not backing his initiative either. We are not officially involved.” He says the parishad believes that there should be a `campus culture’. “Instead of saying what you should not wear, we will tell them what to wear.” He then contradicts himself, saying “College girls are considered mature, they should be allowed to wear what they want.”

Kulkarni claims that like in the Kanpur episode — where the ABVP disrupted Valentine’s Day events on February 14 — the parishad’s image has been tarnished here as well. Nobody has demanded a dress code for MSU students alone: if there should be one, it should be for teachers as well, some of whom are unsuitably attired, he declares.

A former general secretary of a students’ union, Prakash Verma ridicules the campaign. He claims he successfully held a fashion show on campus which was attended by 30,000 students. Terming the agitation as a publicity stunt that failed, he says, “Let girls and their parents decide what suits them best. ABVP has no business to set the norms.”

Echoes Bharati Parmar of AIDSO, “Who are they to dictate terms? It’s cultural fascism.” Like others, she feels that the episode has given MSU a bad name. “We don’t say girls should wear only minis. But you can’t wear underwear to protest,” she says.

The VHP and Bajrang Dal would like to keep away from the issue — at least for now. VHP’s Gujarat Prant vice-president, Chimanbhai Mardia says, “We can’t object to what students wear on campus as long as it is in keeping with Hindu tradition.” So why did they oppose last year’s fashion show when organisers had promised to keep away from “clothes that are too revealing”? “Actually, we were opposing the corruption that takes place in such shows where lots of money is raised,” says Mardia.

Interestingly, the dress code campaign preceded a demand for introduction of unisex uniforms in schools from the other end of the political spectrum, from the Inquilabi Communist Sanghatan. Dr Maya Valecha of ICS says uniforms like skirts and frocks restrict girls’ movements and hamper their physical and mental development. “Girl students can’t cross a compound wall or a fence or sit on the stairs like boys,” she says.

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