Asaram Bapu’s statement that the 23-year old woman who died after being gang-raped in Delhi last month was as much at fault as her offenders is shameful and has made way for competitive male chauvinism. Interestingly most of this chauvinism is coming from the political outfit which forever assures the safety and justice for women. These ludicrous, bordering on imbecilic, remarks by various political and social leaders across the country began after the death of Nirbhaya.
RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat started it all by blaming the western cultures for crime against women because according to him crime against women happen only in urban India and not Bharat ( read villages and forests). By voicing out these chauvinistic opinions he bought back the memory of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini's attribution to "American crotch culture". But the cheery on the cake was when Bhagwat advised women, at another event, to follow the "social theory" of confining themselves to doing household chores and leaving the earning of money to their husbands.
Then we have Kailash Vijayverghia, minister in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh. He has told women that if they crossed their limits they would be punished because Sita, one of the worst sufferers of the Hindu mythology, was abducted because she crossed the lakshman rekha. Even Sita wasn't spared.
VHP leader Ashok Singhal and the Jamaat-e-Islami, both important organisations feeding communalism and fundamentalism, glorified on the virtues of virginity (that of women, who else?), the evil western culture, dignified clothing (for girls, of course) and the undesirability of co-education.
The "hallowed opinions" of Bhagwat, Singhal and Vijayvargiya have caused a lot of uproar, but are unsurprising. Brought up in a feudal and patriarchal society, they have deep-rooted prejudices and no desire to acknowledge the change society has undergone. Their mindset, authoritarian, masculine and mysogynistic, is so sunk in dogma. These people, as also the Jamaat, can’t be expected to think or talk better.
But what has left me stunned is a statement by Asaram Bapu, a popular religious figure operating out of Gujarat. This is his take on the rape of Nirbhaya:
“Only 5-6 people are not the culprits. The victim is as guilty as her rapists. She should have called the culprits brothers and begged them to stop. This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don't think so.”
He said he disfavours harsh punishment for the rapists because he feels the law could be misused, as it is in the case of dowry harassment cases.
In one stroke, Asaram Bapu has become the symbol of all that is wrong with hollow Indian masculinity.He is not a male chauvinist. Perhaps a modern-day Ravan would be a more apt description. But then Ravan had some virtues too, didn't he?
In the smiling bearded visage of Asaram Bapu one sees the six faces that stared down on Nirbhaya on the night of December 16, 2012.
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