4 min readJul 21, 2025 08:07 AM IST
First published on: Jul 21, 2025 at 08:07 AM IST
Typically, the politics of gender in India has been a backlash against the perceived educational and financial independence of women. The reactions, particularly on social media, to the recent murder of a young tennis player allegedly by her father show that there are groups that view the rise of women celebrities and influencers as a threat to a system that rests on male power. The murdered girl’s father told the Haryana police that he had been driven to the act because he had been constantly taunted for “living off his daughter’s income”.
Barely a week later, Balasore district in Odisha faced a public bandh with angry citizens demanding justice for a 20-year-old student who had immolated herself after the college turned a deaf ear to her repeated complaints about a senior faculty member harassing her sexually. Former CM and Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik said in a post on X that a failed system did not help a female student struggling for justice.
There is little sensible discussion over such deaths. Both deaths coincidentally occurred in BJP-ruled states and are being politicised by the Opposition. This has resulted in the usual whataboutery from the ruling party’s quarters: Why focus only on BJP-ruled states? What about the rape-murder of a doctor on a West Bengal campus? Some have called the Haryana incident an “honour killing” since the family was prosperous, and the FIR states that the father of the player-turned-coach was angry with his increasingly defiant daughter. Even the term he used in his confession to his cousin used patriarchal archaism: “Maine kanya vadh kiya hai (I have committed filicide).”
Ironically, it is obvious from both these cases how, whatever the ground reality, gender equality has acquired the aura of an ideal socio-political stance for all Indian political parties. Even while defending perpetrators from their fold, all parties are quick to proclaim support for nari shakti and nari mukti. When elections are due, they promise subsidies and cash donations — now an inalienable part of all manifestos. But the promises printed on posters plastered all over town with the party supremo’s beaming mugshot hide the ugly reality that the daily news unveils. From Vinesh Phogat and Radhika Yadav, to the Balasore case, we can clearly see the injustices that prevail within homes and workplaces even for women who appear to be protected, well-off and financially independent. Whatever the politicians’ proclaimed position, scores of young Indian women are learning how their deemed empowerment may reveal another facet of their powerlessness as daughters, mothers, sisters, students and employees.
Committees to register complaints against sexual harassment at the workplace often underscore a woman’s powerlessness to access justice. We also realise how daily actions and quips, seemingly innocent or unintended, remind women of all ages of the Laxman rekha marking boundaries of female ambition and what society/employers will expect of them after elections and Mahila Shakti Divas and Ladli bahin/ beti celebrations are over. Inequality has many champions on social media. Not just trolls but many well-known influencers openly victim-shame and promote prejudice. This impacts the young indelibly.
We can claim to have some of the most progressive laws to help and protect women from sexual predators. In reality, women see the law and instruments of the state treating those without connections in high places as abstract creatures with abstract rights. In Amrit Kaal, no law will sanction a father shooting his daughter. But the state often only intervenes once the most serious crime has already been committed. No state allows kanwariyas to assault a girl on a scooty with shoes because she defiled their holy cargo either. But this happened. No law in India will silence women or stop them from filing complaints of abuse against predatory male bosses. Women, though, know the standard reaction of college authorities, company boardrooms and office fact-finding committees in these circumstances.
The writer is former chairperson, Prasar Bharati
No law in India will silence women or stop them from filing complaints of abuse against predatory male bosses. Women, though, know the standard reaction of college authorities, company boardrooms and office fact-finding committees in these circumstances. 
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