A significant incident took place earlier this week, that perhaps got drowned out in the cacophony of the assembly elections result. While the nation’s attention was glued to the unfolding poll results in 5 states, Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal made an utterly reprehensible comment when he tried rationalising Rajasthan being on the top of the list of states with the highest rape cases.
During his address in Assembly, Dhariwal said the state is at number one in rape cases because it has always been a region of ‘manly’ persons. He said, “There is no doubt in the fact that we are at number one in rape cases. Why are we ahead in rape cases? Is there some fault within us? What can we do? Rajasthan has always been the state of ‘mards’ (men).”
Not just that, Dhariwal’s crass remarks on sexual violence evoked laughter from his fellow Congress lawmakers, who had no qualms in chortling at statements that sought to justify the preponderance of rapes in Rajasthan rather than raise their voice against Dhariwal’s despicable justification.
Naturally, Dhariwal’s condemnable speech sparked outrage across social media platforms. Several conscious citizens who felt offended at Dhariwal’s remarks took to social media to express their revulsion at the brazen justification of rapes given by the Congress minister. Dr Satish Poonia, State President of the BJP in Rajasthan, slammed the Congress party and its ministers for making a shameless confession of being number one in rape and insulting the women.
Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission of Women (NCW), also took cognisance of Dhariwal’s statement, saying her department would take strict action against the minister. Several notable Twitter users, including author Shefali Vaidya, also voiced their protest against Dhariwal and expressed shock at the statements made by a person holding an important constitutional position.
However, even as condemnations were pouring in on Twitter and other social media platforms, the self-described liberals, who share their ideological moorings with the Congress party, turned a blind eye to the statements made by Dhariwal. They went about their business as if Dhariwal never made those disgraceful remarks rationalising the growing number of rape cases reported in Rajasthan.
One could have granted the benefit of the doubt to the liberals for not denouncing Dhariwal on Thursday given that it was the day when election results of five states had been announced. Liberals perhaps were sunk in their misery after the election results showed BJP returning to power in 4 out of 5 states, one of them the mighty Uttar Pradesh, often hailed as the gateway to the central government.
The studied silence of ‘liberals’ over the ‘rape by mards of Rajasthan’ comment by Congress minister
However, two days since the election results were announced, the left-leaning liberals are yet to take cognisance of Dhariwal’s speech, let alone issue an unequivocal condemnation. The left-leaning liberals, who bill themselves as crusaders fighting for the safety of women, remained woefully callous and indifferent to the plight of women in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and their minister’s appalling justification.
Dhariwal’s statement was not just insensitive and insulting towards the victims of rape and sexual assault, it, in a sense, conveyed a fatalistic acceptance among the government that the state topped the list of states with the highest number of rapes on account of it being a ‘manly’ state. In fact, the minister was almost gloating over the prevalence of rapes in Rajasthan, linking it to the manhood of the state. The statement betrayed the Congress leader’s belief in male chauvinism, a notion that men are superior to women and therefore the latter should always remain subordinate to the former, even if that entails enduring sexual assaults.
But since Dhariwal belonged to the Congress party, his utterances were forgiven, perhaps even papered over, by the dint of maintaining a studied silence over it. None of the women’s right crusader or self-proclaimed feminists dared issue a statement against Dhariwal or the Congress party that harboured individuals with such problematic convictions. Instead, they focused their energies on analysing threadbare the election results of the assembly polls, particularly that of Uttar Pradesh.
‘Liberals’ launch a concerted attack against BJP and RSS for Tirath Singh Rawat’s ‘women wearing ripped jeans’ remark
By contrast, the left-leaning liberals had fallen over themselves to condemn and attack the former chief minister of Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat, for his comment on women wearing ripped jeans. Rawat had in March 2021 made unsolicited remarks on women’s attire when he took to Twitter to express his shock at a mother wearing ripped jeans and boots while she was on a flight with her children.
Rawat’s tweet elicited sharp reactions from a variety of people. From celebrities to journalists, to politicians, everyone pounced on the opportunity to assail the Uttarakhand CM and share their pictures in ripped jeans. Countless opinion columns and articles were written, attacking Rawat for his comment and linking his personal opinions to that of his party.
Anti-BJP propagandists masquerading as journalists exploited Rawat’s predicament to the hilt, contending that his remarks demonstrated BJP’s regressive ideology and their penchant to control what women wore. For days on end, social media platforms were rife with campaigns targeting BJP and RSS for remarks made by Rawat. An elaborate and concerted attempt was made to malign the Sangh and the BJP, in a bid to cast a dent in their women supporter base.
The Liberal reticence on calling out Rajasthan minister for his obnoxious remarks betrays their shameless hypocrisy
But tragically, this spirited initiative to fight for something as serious and significant as women’s safety was conspicuously missing in the wake of Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal’s trivialising remarks on the prevalence of rapes in the state. Sure, women have every right to choose what they want to wear without men passing moralistic judgments on their choices. But they also have a right to lead a dignified life, one that is not marred by the spectre of rapes and sexual assault.
This, however, is not important enough to warrant the attention of left-leaning liberals, who are otherwise champing at the bit of outraging against everything under the sun, of course so long as the protest is directed against the Modi government. Since Dhariwal is a minister in the Congress government, he is allowed to get away with these indiscreet utterances, no matter how condemnable and appalling they are.
The stark dichotomy between the liberals’ reaction to Rawat and Dhariwal’s comment underscores the double standards of the left-liberal intelligentsia. They would make a beeline to attack non-left leaders on the perceived impropriety but turn a blind eye to unambiguously obnoxious behaviour and statements made by their own leaders. As their deafening silence on Dhariwal’s statements illustrates, the Left’s insistence on being the champion of women’s rights and safety is nothing but hogwash. For the Left, the ideals of feminism, women’s safety are not paramount. Instead, they are mere tools that can be weaponised at will to defeat their political and ideological opponents.
