MJ Akbar is out of the Council of Ministers and “they” think the state is free of the #MeToo stain. Ha! PMO got M J to quit. NSA Ajit Doval did it. EAM Sushma Swaraj did it. WCDM Maneka did it. Blahblahblah… O! Great, just great. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is with the women! Zero tolerance for women-harassers. And women-bashers at Sabarimala. News in the Centre has sent a “stern advisory” to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking him to enforce rule of law and the Supreme Court verdict.
Is that so? Then, why’s the state unit of the BJP at the vanguard of protests rocking Kerala? What about the Shiv Sena and Praveen Togadia threatening suicide and more. What about Subramanian Swamy talking in a non-linear tongue. What about Big Brother RSS stating in clear khadiboli Hindi that injustice has been done to millions of ready to wait devotees of Kerala, aren’t they women, what about their rights?
If the report is right, it gives credence to talk that the BJP has been toying with the “chaos theory” to deliver Modi 2019, a second term in office to resume his world tour. Trouble is Narendra Modi never comes out in the open, except to do Yoga, to clear the smog surrounding so many of the problems roiling India — bring order to the babble of voices, which on the face of them sound so Modi-like that they can be mistaken for HMV recording done in Modi’s PM residence’s anteroom after a thorough SPG check of throats.
Modi is like the Punjab farmer, burning stubble to pollute Delhi air. He has not spoken on the Sabarimala issue post the apex court decision to empower women of all ages. The tussle there is between chromosomes. The particular area of Sabarimala is reserved for the male chromosome, a notion that the Supreme Court dumped in the Pamba. Problem is the top court did not account for ‘Superman Syndrome’, which is that some male have an extra Y chromosome and such types display criminal behaviour.
What’s confounding is what stops women of “fertile age”, who gather courage to head for the hilltop shrine, at the very brink of the “natural jungle cover” for Swami Ayyappa? What dread lies in the jungle? New York Times reporter Suhasini Raj was wary of plumbing the depths, she returned to base despite police offer to escort her through the forest foliage to the shrine. Earlier, the day before, Andhra Pradesh native 41-year-old Madhavi, too, developed cold feet at the edge of the jungle and about-turned. Modi watchers will understand “Modi” better if they venture into the undergrowth of the Sabarimala forest.
The BJP’s chaos theory is being enacted all over the country to give an Aadhaar to Hindu identity. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is apparently a victim of the chaos theory. He complained that he’s no longer invited to ‘Hindu functions’. It seems the BJP, taking a leaf from the #MeToo book, is naming and shaming opposition leaders with alleged “Pakistan links” — Ghulam Nabi Azad, Navjot Singh Sidhu… Is it working? If MJ Akbar has posed the question, he will answer in the affirmative, at least in his case. There is nothing like shame to kill the male chromosome.
Chaos fits India like a glove. It is like a second skin to democracy practised in India. #MeToo fits chaos, gives chaos wings. Rule of law doesn’t stand a chance in chaotic India. Due process, what? Presumption of innocence, whose? And, we’re not talking of MJ Akbar. The French Revolution was witness to how chaos works — inquisition and the guillotine — burning at the stake.
Normally, licensed guns remain concealed and covered in India, but when one is pulled out by a politician’s son in the lobby of a 5-Star hotel in the Capital, we get an idea of the kind of chaos that rules the countryside, the rural hinterland where, forget gender justice, nothing justice gets its day in the court in the chaos that pervades. Swami Ayyappa, if he has any sense, should flee Sabarimala; put an end to the chaos.
Aditya Aamir is a freelance journalist. The views are personal.
