Opinion The PM is a 24X7 champion of women’s rights, but work takes its toll

I still vividly remember how, not so long ago in a rally during the recent election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the Hon’ble Prime Minister roared and asked the crowd, “Kya Uttar Pradesh mein behan beti suraj dhalne ke baad baahar ja sakti hai kya?”. Can your sisters and daughters go out of the house after sunset in Uttar Pradesh ? And how the crowd roared back, “Nahin !”

It is a matter of great regret that not much has changed since the BJP won 71 seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 three years ago, upon which the Apna Dal party merged with the BJP and gave it two more. In north India we use the phrase, “sone pe suhaga.” The icing on the cake.

It is said the Hon’ble Prime Minister works round the clock, 24×7. Mind you, he has never been a part-time politician. But work takes its toll. The stress that comes with being Prime Minister of a country of 1.25 billion people, not a chief minister of a state with only 67 million people, is natural. So its natural that he, sometimes, forgets about keeping the item, “safety and security of women,” on top of his priority list.

So when the list slips or the item in question falls off the page and the streets and public places become unsafe for women, it isn’t fair that we blame him.

After all, law and order is a state subject. Perhaps, we should place both our anxiety and our criticism on the lack of safety and security for women in India on our chief ministers, a majority of whom may or may not be hand-plucked and placed in their respective capitals by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. Yes, the BJP has painted a majority of the states in its colours, but to blame the most important leader of the party, the Prime Minister, would be a most uncharitable thing to do.

Madam,

You know well the feeling of working really hard, until there’s nothing else left to do, and also understand that it takes its toll. So for example, the brilliant slogan about “Beti Bachao/Beti Padhao,” about which it is now amply clear that the Prime Minister means dangerously serious business.

So, when on a visit to Washington, he compared the sculptures on the 13th century Sun temple in Konarak to a “modern, fashionable girl, jo skirt pehenti hai our haath main purse, rakhti hai” (a girl who wears a skirt and holds a purse in her hand), you know that he was being sincere in his belief that in India’s 5000-year-old civilization, Indian women have always been independent-minded. Some unkind people may put this down to jetlag, but I really think his mind was still focused on his “Beti bachao…” programme.

In fact, the Hon’ble Prime Minister is one of those people who puts foreign policy above party interests, for example with Bangladesh. So it was natural for him to warmly and very enthusiastically applaud Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangabandhu, for her resolve in fighting terrorism “despite being a woman.”

Back home in Gujarat, many years ago when he was still chief minister, it was rumoured that he insisted the state give protection to an architect who also happened to be a woman. It seems the young lady in question was also put under surveillance. As a responsible guardian of the state, it was natural for Modi ji, the Hon’ble Chief Minister at the time, to take interest in her whereabouts. There was really no need for anybody to look at this differently.

Now, the story of the Women’s Reservation Bill has been going on an on for 21 years. The former Hon’ble prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi ji, first mooted the provision for reservation for women in Panchayats & Nagarpalikas.

You rightly said in Parliament recently that, “the building blocks of discrimination against women lie within the very systems that are supposed to nurture & defend them. Namely,. the family and the community. Ever so often women end up, for no fault of theirs, as victims of some tradition. Too often it’s the family that makes distinctions between male and female children when it comes to food, clothes and education.

“Families force girls into early marriage, families demand dowry when son gets married and families withhold opportunities for employment and independence and deny girls their legitimate share of family property,” you added.

Madam,

I do sincerely, hope that the biggest proponent of ‘Matri-Sanskriti’, the Hon’ble member of the Rajya Sabha, Sharad Yadav, realises that India is changing and women are demanding their rightful place both in Parliament and outside. He may have called them, “par kati,” as if they were birds whose wings needed to be chopped, but it is certainly true that those who refuse to move with the times and acknowledge that women are equal in every way to men, may actually be birdbrains, which means that sooner than later they will become redundant.

The good news of course is that Shri Sushashan Kumar in Bihar has sealed a power deal with Hon’ble Prime Minister Saheb and that Nitish babu can remind Modi ji of his commitment towards the women of India.

So, Madam, we shall now have to wait and see. You have promised the Hon’ble Prime Minister the support of the Congress party with its 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, so that he can pass the Women’s Reservation Bill. The BJP has a brute majority of course, with 282 seats. The Left parties, although they are reduced to a handful of seats, have already promised support.

Can the Hon’ble Prime Minister push it through? Will he use all the charm and powers of persuasion at his disposal to pass a legislation that is being held back by the most antiquated notions of patriarchy?

I certainly hope so. The burden of history is on his shoulders…the Congress, under your guardianship, Madam, has kept the flame burning and the Bill alive, by passing it in the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

Will the Hon’ble prime minister complete the unfinished agenda of history in this winter session of Parliament? We await that day…

Warm Regards

Pankaj Shankar
A Citizen