jasmine gajras for lokpal men
by anu
the ten member jan lokpal bill committee constituted post ‘revolution’ seen conferring at their first meeting. does anything seem strange here?
you know, my country does have women. they are just out of this picture. perhaps they are behind the camera, or behind the men, or simply left out. how can that be? i saw angry women ‘revolutionaries’ at the forefront of the anti-corruption ‘revolution’. think, i recognized a socialite turned gandhian, a famous retired police officer, prominent film personalities and anti-big dam activists. all these women are ones who reached the top echelons of their respective professions. surely, they did not fail to ask for inclusion in the committee -an all-powerful supra-parliamentary one! surely, these women know the long-lasting repercussions of excluding women in top committees (?)
feminist credentials, they all have. their decades long high volume presence in the media assures us that a feminist movement is thriving in india. so, what happened? someone, please explain the invisible patriarchal processes that facilitated this exclusion of the super bright, super ambitious indian women (naturally all upper caste).of the ten members, five are from the parliament, five from civil society. recalling the endless debates on women’s reservation bill, we are aware that the complicated electoral procedures contrived to exclude them and keep them under represented in the house. since we know ‘them’ is not ‘us’ we demanded quota within the bill. they consistently shouted down such demands by dalitbahujan women. we are supposed to wait our turn after they get in, and the fair goddesses would ensure the process of representation evens out for lower caste and minority women.
now, in the present scenario, the composition of members from civil society presented no complicated electoral procedures therefore it should have been straight forward to have women representatives, right? the only complicated exclusionary procedure that kept women out seemed to be that one old hindu male did not think them fit to be included. the very same hindu male that all these feminist leaders supported with such passion. why is there no anger at this exclusion? are they happy to have this bunch of men decide who and what is corrupt and how to deal with it, with no female input at all?
my hyper imagination is seeing this all male bunch quickly evolve into a khap panchyat, dishing out more weird codes for indian women - consolidating manu’s work!
stringing jasmine gajras for aging hindu men to sit in this committee, and after rendering this noble service vaporizing into thin air like swirling agarbati smoke inside mandirs, is good old brahmin tradition, this does not make a revolution. this is brahmanism, dear feminist leaders!
and we dalitbahujan women are supposed to trust these ladies word on women’s reservation bill?
funny creatures!
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ps: the minuscule online dalitbahujan groups did take time off to write pithy updates about this farce of a revolution, i think they ripped it apart from almost all imaginable angles - i wish i had the time to compile several funny and some tremendously insightful updates.
Well said; congratuations!