Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has declared that she stands strongly against patriarchy and she won’t let anyone tell her what kind of bag she should carry (or not carry). The statement here can sound bizarre to somebody uninitiated on the whole issue. Why would someone even notice Priyanka’s handbag if she wasn’t the one flaunting it in the first place?
The newly elected MP from Wayanad made a huge blunder in the first Lok Sabha speech last week. She started ranting against the state government in Himachal Pradesh, where her own party is in power. She got trolled and criticised for it, not because she is a woman and criticising a woman MP is ‘patriarchy’, she got criticised because she made a stupid blunder, in her first Lok Sabha address.
Today on December 16, Priyanka thought to make headlines again. So she carried a huge handbag with ‘PALESTINE’ written on it in bold capital letters. Nobody knows what was she trying to prove by that. Celebrities flaunt their clothes and accessories with a specific brand name when they are paid for it, or entrepreneurial celebrities like Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma and Deepika Padukone flaunt their own brands because they want people to buy them. Priyanka’s activism would have seemed a similar fashion endorsement if it wasn’t for the hollow entitlement that is more visible than the big bag here.
Priyanka even stopped and posed for photographs with that bag, beaming and grinning.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi sports a bag with 'Palestine' written on it in the Parliament pic.twitter.com/RVPh8FuJ6J
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) December 16, 2024
Regarding Priyanka’s choice of handbag though, the message she is trying to send is rather confusing.
The irony in ‘flaunting’ a Palestine bag is multi-layered. First, there are Palestinian civilians being used as human shields by Hamas in Gaza. Priyanka’s version of ‘supporting’ the Palestinian cause is to highlight Israel’s war against Hamas and call to stop it. She has been peddling Hamas talking points for months. Priyanka hasn’t yet questioned Hamas why it isn’t allowing Palestinian civilians to flee, why were they running terrorist shelters, and weapons silos under civilian structures.
Second, the war in Gaza started because Hamas terrorists attacked women, children and the elderly in Israel. The October 7 attack was targeted at women, children, families and the elderly living quiet lives, enjoying family time in their homes. Hamas misused the employment and earning opportunities provided by Israel to Palestinian civilians to earn a decent livelihood by working in their territory by launching the attack and taking hundreds of civilians hostage, after killing hundreds of women and children brutally.
Priyanka’s feminism and activism are perhaps only for one specific group of victims, depending on their religion.
There are people starving in Gaza, and children living in fear. There are bombs being dropped relentlessly for over a year and much of it has been turned into rubble. Here, a privileged fourth-generation ultra-rich political heir of one of the most powerful families in India is flaunting her alleged sympathy for those people, by carrying a colourful bag and smiling at the cameras. How very touching.
When asked by a journalist what she has to say to the people criticising her flashy, vibrant, (and possibly very expensive) handbag, Priyanka instantly played the patriarchy card. She said it is a patriarchal mindset to dictate what a woman should and should not wear and she doesn’t subscribe to such mindset. Bravo queen. What a statement. The starving women and children, huddled under a bunker in Gaza must feel elated that their champion has successfully carried a Palestine bag to her office and flaunted it before cameras.
#WATCH | Priyanka Gandhi carries 'Palestine' bag to Parliament, draws patriarchy retort in criticism counter – Video
— Republic (@republic) December 16, 2024
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.#Palestine #PriyankaGandhi #PriyankaGandhiVadra #PalestineBag #Video pic.twitter.com/vQTtVsAxp0
In reality, Priyanka’s feminism here is as hollow as her fake activism for Palestine. She has done what every dumb Insta influencer does these days. Just as clueless millennials feel good about themselves by trending hashtags, the Wayanad MP is trying to do what woke teenagers are doing in US colleges nowadays, become stupid instruments for stupid activism, play victim and hog headlines, without ever doing anything meaningful. Even then, those teenagers are at least taking some risk, Priyanka is easily one of the most privileged, most protected women in India. Nobody is going to expel her from a college campus, and no recruiter is going to say she cannot be hired. She is only mocking the voters in Wayanad who would have thought their MP was going to address their issues.
