Many states/countries around India and the globe have been graced by women as chief minister/governor/Prime Minister/President. Now during their tenure, do rape cease to exist in concerned area under their administrative control!
Certainly not because rape is nothing but a social crime. So irrespective of the government, ruling party or the gender of the administrator; rape unfortunately continues to thrive since the dark old lawless days.
Didn't the sensational 'Nirbhaya' case hit Delhi when a female chief minister was at helm!
In this perspective, rhetoric of "even a single incident of rape in a state under the rule of a female chief minister is shameful" might invite cheap applause; but it do not hold any merit. Irrespective of the gender of the administrator, the whole society needs to be ashamed for the unpardonable crime named rape wherever it happens.
Also stringent protest against rape is must along with vocal demand of exemplary punishment to the culprits. But when a specific administrator, ruling party or the government gets targeted as if they are "collaborators" of such a crime; it smacks of blatant hypocrisy and filthy politics.
May I ask the Opposition parties, making a hue and cry to denigrate West Bengal/TMC/Mamata Banerjee along with demand of imposition of President's rule in the state; what they have to say about gruesome gangrapes during 2002 Gujarat pogrom, spine-chilling barbarities in Hathras-Unnao-Budaun; the scandalous gangrapes in Bantata-Dhantala (West Bengal under Left regime) and of course the "Nirbhaya" case when both the Union territory and the country were being governed by the same party! Do the concerned parties hold moral courage and honesty enough to malign the respective states and/or blame the ruling party/government/chief minister during whose tenure such horrors were witnessed! Perhaps the Opposition parties of West Bengal have forgotten the adage --- "When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back to you"!
And would the BJP leaders of national sphere, zealously demanding CBI inquiry whenever any untoward events take place in Bengal, kindly clarify why they don't make similar demands when horrific incidents regularly take place in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana (to name a few)! Answer is obvious!
It is indeed extremely disgusting to witness how nakedly the concerned parties exploit human tragedy to meet its cheap electoral interest !
Next ridiculous picture of blatant hypocrisy arrives from Tripura.
As reported, The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council has ordered its employees to wear traditional dresses once a week triggering a political furore.
But who is being seen to take the cudgel on behalf of the non-indigenous employees and oppose the decision by terming it as "imposition of culture"! None other than that political outfit which is hell-bent on imposing all things Hindi and Hindutva upon this multi-lingual multi-religious land named India !
At least the TTAADC is issuing its cultural diktat on its own soil ie tribal areas of Tripura; but that particular outfit is engaged in brutally imposing the language of few North Indian states upon the whole country and less said about rabid Hindutva the better which is simply posing a direct assault upon the diet, attire, rituals and livelihood of certain communities whose democratic, Constitutional and legal right over India is not an iota lesser than even the hardest core Hindu!
With such an "impeccable record" to boast of in terms of "tolerance/respect towards diversities"; by which authority can that party even pronounce the term "cultural imposition" in the first place !
Though the diktat of the TTAADC is not entirely praiseworthy (as anything imposition in personal sphere runs contrary to human rights), it also remains a moral obligation of the non-indigenous people (be in Tripura or anywhere around the country/globe) to respect the culture and language of the concerned region which provide them shelter and livelihood.
It is simply disgusting to witness the rampant political hypocrisies drawing "inspiration" from the adage "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose"!
(The views expressed are personal)
