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.

The case of exploited 'Liberal - Females'

The recent opposition against making of wearing of skirts compulsory in the game of badminton reminded me of the Einstein theory of relativity – there is nothing like absolute conservative or for that matter like absolute progressive attitude. These are only relative terminologies. The players’ world stood up in opposition this time. It only reiterates the point that a person takes either a conservative approach or adopts a progressive attitude only in response to the situation that he/she faces at that point of time. You can snub those who want fully covered girls playing badminton/tennis but the fact is now getting unveiled that till now it was probably not the innocent players who had decided the style of their clothes. In fact I have now reasons to believe that whatever they were wearing hitherto were actually forced upon them. Their willingness and consent was bought cunningly by befooling them in the name of their comfort and/or by making them believe that the extent of skin-show or the breadth of exposure of their curves actually measure their liberty. Please forgive me if it hurts anybody who is still under the influence of some sexist progressive-thinkers but it is a verifiable fact that the more liberal a female becomes the more she is exploited by the society. After all it is not for no reasons that the media without fail captures only those snaps with angles that attempt to capture these talented sports-girls with their skirts up. It is also not unintentional that the page3, the ad-world and the fashion-industry use these self-offering, willingly-exploited, ‘liberal-females’ as mere commodities. I rate this willing-exploitation much worse than what an average Indian homemaker is made to pass through as they too get exploited willingly but only by a single person/family. These females feel inexplicably victimized when they are not provided with the chance to get exploited just as it was reported in the case of one of the IPL-cheer-girls who was sent back to South Africa unceremoniously unexploited. Now she herself admits that they were treated like instruments of cheap-joy by one and all. However it is a fact that they were not selected from any pool of talent but simply handpicked and in return they were not expected to resist any attempt of such exploitations. Irony is that these forces do not want to leave anyone and now want to force everybody to wear what they want them to wear. Left to them, it will be just a matter of time that all games will have a dress code of beach volleyball-players or something else that is still unimaginable. In the name of artistic-expressions, these forces will also leave no scope for wardrobe malfunctioning for those flat-faced self-exploited fashion-instruments called ramp-walkers. However these sexist-eyed progressive thinkers will be quick to blame me for opposing such exposure and will snub me for being hypocritically conservative since I too enjoy ogling onto the fashion-section and the page3 exposures in addition to the sports-page photographs that captures many of them unaware with their skirts flying up. However, I fail to understand that how can they justify these exploitations by establishing that everybody enjoys them. Yes you can call me hypocrite since I will always differentiate between an act of personal enjoyment and a matter of public entertainment but I find those progressive-beasts as symbols of hypocrisy as they will never admit that they enjoy exploiting this situation to feed their hyper-sexist desires in the company of their creation of a class of self-destructing willing-to-be-exploited 'liberal-females'.

Caught in the Web of Corruption

(Published in the April 25 issue of the Governance Now. Please visit the following link to access the article. http://governancenow.com/views/columns/blame-it-our-corrupting-system)

I feared for this since the time Hazare started mobilizing us against corruption in the corridors of powers. It happened to all earlier torch-bearers against any kind of corruption in India. Those who showed courage to question the powerful have themselves ended up falling on the side of sufferers. Be it the Tehelka-expose, cash-for-votes revelation in the Parliament, the L. N. Mishra-whispers, the Bofor issue, unveiling of the fodder scam, JMM payment case, Radia-gate expose and other such innumerable cases – we have witnessed blatant attempts to shut the mouths of the source itself. Due to this, we as a nation have lost faith in everybody. We will look for no reasons to believe in the latest Bhushan – duo expose; we will never seek any proof to establish the relation between Gandhis and Italian-Q’s Bofor-payments; we will effortlessly assume a connection between Binayak and Maoists; irrespective of the verdicts, we will never be able to acquit Afzal or Professor Geelani in the Parliament-attack case; we have already hanged Modi many times for his supposed involvement in the Gujrat riots; it is impossible to reject a link between any unknown Indian-muslim and terrorism; and nobody needs to be convinced for a connection between RSS and saffron-terror; in fact we require absolutely nothing to believe in any such negative expose and will be extremely hesitant in accepting that Anna Hazare, Swami Ramdev or Swami Agniwesh have innocent intentions. The power uses this state of our mind to prove that all are corrupt. This helps them in achieving their win ultimately.
In addition to this, corruption has assumed such a large proportion that people feel pride in displaying their corrupt intent. Corrupts are ruling the nation and belong to ruler-influential class. We take pride in moving in a tinted-glassed-car if that is banned, we feel proud in moving without helmet, we proudly cross a red-signal or boast of our connection in manipulating a decision in our favor that was otherwise not allowed within rules – be it admission of your ward; be it a place in an Indian/IPL team; be it winning a tender; be it selection for a post or promotion in your rank. On the other hand a law-abiding or a rule-observer is generally looked down upon by our society. We measure the status of an influential person and respect him as much as he shows courage to violate/manipulate rules and norms. The power-brokers in India have helped in creating this state by enacting laws that are simply un-observable. Bill Gates can rise from ashes using regular means but it is simply unimaginable to even dream for any such rise in India by any law-abiding individual. You necessarily need to be a Harshad/a Ketan/a power broker politician/a shrewd bureaucrat/a corrupt administrator/a manipulating Judge/a tax evading businessman or a professional who is not honestly true to his/her profession. Believe me they can prove anyone corrupt not only because we require little to get convinced about this but also as they have ensured that nobody can remain a law-abiding citizen in India.
I am afraid, unless you are an ostrich it is impossible to find a way to get out of this mess.