Response to 'Slut Walk? No Thanks' by Seema Goswami

(Edited version of this response is published on June 26, 2011 of BRUNCH, HT page 4)

I was mesmerized by the way Seema Goswami expressed herself sensibly in “Slut Walk? No Thanks!” (Page 20, BRUNCH, HT June 19, 2011 please visit the following link http://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/lifestyle/Slut-Walk-No-Thanks/Article1-710557.aspx ). I have always maintained that “right to dress” should not be stretched to have “right to undress” and “freedom of expression” should never be misused as “freedom to hurt”. She is absolutely right in placing that freedom and rights can never come bereft of responsibilities. Just as the slut walkers want others to behave responsibly (when they are slovenly dressed) they too have the same obligation to observe. I often wonder why females (unlike males) measure their liberty with their freedom of showing off their skin. When males show their sexuality they never complain if they get a response (if at all they get!) but females have a tendency to go overboard to show their sexuality but start complaining the moment they get the ‘desired?’ attention. Of course nobody can justify rape but just as ‘murder’ does not always fall under the ‘rarest of the rare’ category, rapists will always attempt to differentiate between a ‘seduced rape’ and a ‘forced rape’. And if females experience their inability in differentiating between rapes then they should not try to become men by downgrading themselves to compete with males in the race of the ‘show of sexuality’. Instead, they should attempt at shaking the conscience of males by exposing their usual tendencies of showing their sexuality - verbally or otherwise. I am sure females can do this without having to reveal their own sexuality and without feeding fodders to the male (hypocritically-sick) mind that desperately look for an opportunity to ogle even at the slut walkers.

An Unfortunate Nation

This nation must be thankful to Ramdev Baba who successfully exposed a corrupt government who wanted to avoid the midnight-action at any cost by offering red-carpet reception for him, was left with no other option once Baba did not agree to dance to its tune. A government that was forced to reveal its hidden-intentions of going to any extent for not letting them - who have huge black money stashed in the foreign banks – expose, would have acted exactly in the manner this government behaved that eventful night. This government has a Diggy (sorry for not using the appropriate vowel in this name) who mindlessly keeps on hurling self-defeating arguments just because he has been assigned the job of barking and biting everyone who wants to take away his master’s assets and money. Kapil Sibbal was right at least this time in admitting that the decision of not letting the government’s shame exposed at any cost must have been a unanimous one. Our prime minister had recently murmured that corruption is not a divisive issue but probably he had only politicians in his mind at that point of time. I must educate him by revealing that corruption is indeed a divisive issue that divides corrupt from honest and politicians/bureaucrats from masses. It was this divide that got exposed that night. It is now clear that this government will always prefer an innocent Hazare who can be made to believe in its gimmick/token exercises but will never like to negotiate with an intelligent Ramdev who will not accept any formula if it is not intended to bring back the black money in a time-bound manner. The government was left with only two options that night – to listen to the mass and part with their ill-earned black money or to brutally shut them up who were trying to expose them - and unfortunately for this nation, it chose the latter. Thanks to Baba Ramdev for proving that fight against corruption is and will always remain a fight against the mafia governing the nation at that time.