‘If you are a man, deliver on your promises’. That was a major Telugu newspaper’s headline on the International Women’s Day. The news article starts with a challenge from the working president of Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Taraka Rama Rao, a former minister and son of the former Chief Minister, to the current Chief Minister and Telangana Congress president Revanth Reddy: “Manhood does not mean winning an election. If you are a man, stand by your word”. One is left wondering. Does Rama Rao imply that only men, not women, can deliver on their promises? Or, does he imply that women, just because of their gender, are not expected to stand by their word?
Sexism and misogyny are all pervasive in the BRS leadership. Just a few weeks back, the former Chief Minister and the BRS chief Chandrasekhar Rao, speaking publicly on the Krishna Water Tribunal, said the current government needs to explain our need and our pain and fight for our rightful share of river waters to Telangana. That is the job a man (magadu) should do.
Interestingly, Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter, Rama Rao’s sister Kavitha, is a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) and a former Member of Parliament (MP). The father had spared no effort to make Kavitha an MLC after she lost the Lok Sabha elections for a second term as an MP. One would assume a father who believes his daughter has all the qualifications to become a legislator would carry that attitude towards all women – that they are not deficient or less capable because of their gender. On the contrary, the only conclusion one can draw from the father-son duo’s public utterances is that they believe women, except those from the ‘first family’, are inferior to men.
The irony is Kavitha claims to be a fighter for women’s causes. Only a few months back, when the heat over the allegations of her involvement in what came to be known as the Delhi liquor scam was at its peak, Kavitha made a political show demanding the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. Her attempt to craft an image of a fighter for women’s equality fell flat no less due to the apparent misogyny of men in her life. For example, her father denied women a place in his cabinet during his first term. He grudgingly took them into his cabinet only during his second term after the Opposition made it a political issue. Kavitha has never appeared to have questioned her father or brother on their disrespectful utterances towards women or their unequal treatment of women.
The Congress party is no less. Congress leaders, including the current Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, have used language similar to Chandrasekhar Rao and Rama Rao. While Congress leaders praise their chief Revanth as the ‘magaadu’ (man) who defeated BRS and the father-son duo, the Chief Minister himself had challenged Chandrasekhar Rao to contest from Gajwel if he is a ‘magaadu’ (Man).
There is no difference in the condescension and the lack of respect towards women by the BRS or the Congress leaders. What makes the language of the Congress leaders even more disgusting, distasteful, and duplicitous is that while Indira Gandhi was India’s first and only woman Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi wielded power as the de facto Prime Minister when Manmohan Singh was the de jure Prime Minister. Both of them are from the Congress party. Of course, like Kavitha of BRS, Indira and Sonia are from the Congress’ first family. Like the BRS, Congress, too, thinks of women as inferior – except when they are from their party’s first family.
It is a given that when people in powerful positions hold women as inferior to men, the public policy under their rule becomes apathetic towards women and ignores their problems. No wonder it took the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to come into power with an absolute majority to provide basic necessities affecting women’s dignity, health, security and empowerment. Humongous numbers like the four crore houses, eleven crore toilets, crores of gas and tap connections, tens of crores of health insurance beneficiaries, and opening of more than 25 crore bank accounts for women by the Modi government all highlight two aspects. Firstly, the indifference shown by earlier governments towards women’s issues and, secondly, the transformation of women’s lives at large under the Modi-led BJP government.
Coincidentally, yesterday was both International Women’s Day and Maha Shivratri. Shivratri honours Lord Shiva – Ardhanarishwara – half-male (Shiva) and half-female (Parvathi), equally split down the middle, signifying that both male and female are equal and incomplete without the other. No wonder Modi and the BJP, accused by so-called intellectuals and liberals as being conservative and regressive for relying upon Bharat’s civilisational values to guide them, are the ones who see women as not only equal to men but as embodiments of Shakti (power). May Naari Shakti accelerate Viksit Bharat, India’s destiny.
(The author is BJP
TS spokesperson.)
Sexism and misogyny are all pervasive in the BRS leadership. Just a few weeks back, the former Chief Minister and the BRS chief Chandrasekhar Rao, speaking publicly on the Krishna Water Tribunal, said the current government needs to explain our need and our pain and fight for our rightful share of river waters to Telangana. That is the job a man (magadu) should do.
Interestingly, Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter, Rama Rao’s sister Kavitha, is a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) and a former Member of Parliament (MP). The father had spared no effort to make Kavitha an MLC after she lost the Lok Sabha elections for a second term as an MP. One would assume a father who believes his daughter has all the qualifications to become a legislator would carry that attitude towards all women – that they are not deficient or less capable because of their gender. On the contrary, the only conclusion one can draw from the father-son duo’s public utterances is that they believe women, except those from the ‘first family’, are inferior to men.
The irony is Kavitha claims to be a fighter for women’s causes. Only a few months back, when the heat over the allegations of her involvement in what came to be known as the Delhi liquor scam was at its peak, Kavitha made a political show demanding the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. Her attempt to craft an image of a fighter for women’s equality fell flat no less due to the apparent misogyny of men in her life. For example, her father denied women a place in his cabinet during his first term. He grudgingly took them into his cabinet only during his second term after the Opposition made it a political issue. Kavitha has never appeared to have questioned her father or brother on their disrespectful utterances towards women or their unequal treatment of women.
The Congress party is no less. Congress leaders, including the current Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, have used language similar to Chandrasekhar Rao and Rama Rao. While Congress leaders praise their chief Revanth as the ‘magaadu’ (man) who defeated BRS and the father-son duo, the Chief Minister himself had challenged Chandrasekhar Rao to contest from Gajwel if he is a ‘magaadu’ (Man).
There is no difference in the condescension and the lack of respect towards women by the BRS or the Congress leaders. What makes the language of the Congress leaders even more disgusting, distasteful, and duplicitous is that while Indira Gandhi was India’s first and only woman Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi wielded power as the de facto Prime Minister when Manmohan Singh was the de jure Prime Minister. Both of them are from the Congress party. Of course, like Kavitha of BRS, Indira and Sonia are from the Congress’ first family. Like the BRS, Congress, too, thinks of women as inferior – except when they are from their party’s first family.
It is a given that when people in powerful positions hold women as inferior to men, the public policy under their rule becomes apathetic towards women and ignores their problems. No wonder it took the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to come into power with an absolute majority to provide basic necessities affecting women’s dignity, health, security and empowerment. Humongous numbers like the four crore houses, eleven crore toilets, crores of gas and tap connections, tens of crores of health insurance beneficiaries, and opening of more than 25 crore bank accounts for women by the Modi government all highlight two aspects. Firstly, the indifference shown by earlier governments towards women’s issues and, secondly, the transformation of women’s lives at large under the Modi-led BJP government.
Coincidentally, yesterday was both International Women’s Day and Maha Shivratri. Shivratri honours Lord Shiva – Ardhanarishwara – half-male (Shiva) and half-female (Parvathi), equally split down the middle, signifying that both male and female are equal and incomplete without the other. No wonder Modi and the BJP, accused by so-called intellectuals and liberals as being conservative and regressive for relying upon Bharat’s civilisational values to guide them, are the ones who see women as not only equal to men but as embodiments of Shakti (power). May Naari Shakti accelerate Viksit Bharat, India’s destiny.
(The author is BJP
TS spokesperson.)
