The dehaati aurat has achieved what the UPA could not.
It turns out the star of both Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs trip to the US and Narendra Modis Delhi rally is the dehaati aurat village woman. After rumours spread on Sunday that Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif had compared Singh with said person,Modi shook his fists at the perceived insult to his nations prime minister. But it was soon clarified that Sharif had been trying his hand at allegory,not analogy. His parable featured a fight between two villagers,one of whom was a woman. The moral of the story was do not bring in a third party to settle disputes. In other words,leave the US out of Indo-Pak issues.
But where is the insult in dehaati aurat? Taking exception to the word dehaati,or rustic,reflects an innate snobbery the same kind of citified disdain that buys into the stereotypes of cattle class and anpadh gawaar. Taking exception to aurat only reveals the many shades of misogyny that still colour our politics. Still,the dehaati aurat has achieved what the UPA could not she has opposition leaders leaping to defend the PM.