Pati, patni or woe

Who imagined that terms like Pati and Patni could be the cause of so much woe in Parliament? Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in Parliament cannot cite the excuse of not knowing Hindi, as the reason for addressing our new Madam President in the way that he did. He could well have used the English term to address the new incumbent of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Unfortunately, women politicians from all political parties have faced gender discrimination from their male counterparts on many an occasion and it’s not as if it is members of opposing parties who are always behind these sexist slurs.

A quick scan reveals worthies like Dig Vijay Singh, who paid a sexist compliment to his colleague, erstwhile Congress member, Jayanthi Natarajan. Mayawati has had to hear comments from BJP MLA Surendra Narayan Singh about hair colour and opting for facials. Dayashankar Singh of the BJP has stooped even lower in what he has said about Mayawati and it would be unparliamentary to even mention it. Akhilesh Yadav is on record for fat shaming Mayawati and Janata Dal-United Leader, Sharad Yadav is guilty of doing the same to Vasundhara Raje. Some years ago, when the debate on the Women’s Reservations Bill, came up in Parliament, the aforementioned gentleman had an opinion on women with bobbed hair.

Perhaps he was of the understanding that women’s strength rests in their hair, like Hercules in Greek mythology. BJP MP Vinay Katiyar’s comments on Priyanka Gandhi’s looks during her UP campaign resulted in a suitable retort.

Male politicians apart, the general public is also less kind to women politicians. During the last parliamentary elections, the TMC offered 17 of its 42 seats to women. Of these, two actors, Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan, won with thumping majorities from their constituencies of Jadavpur and Basirhat. Many people, including Bengali intelligentsia, found it hard to accept their being given tickets, resulting in them becoming recipients of crass jokes, both online and offline. Their success probably came as a shock and when these women entered Parliament for the first time and posted pictures of themselves in front of the building in Western clothes, the backlash turned even more vicious, as they had not conformed to the stereotype of how women should dress in Parliament.

To their credit, the two ladies have kept their dignity, unlike the first-time MP from Karnataka, who is always outraged over so many issues, including how women should dress, conduct their personal lives and can even have an advertisement cancelled because the women in it did not have bindis on their foreheads. But, guess he was only following His Master’s Voice - the template laid in place by his big boss who thought nothing of belittling Sonia Gandhi by calling her the Vidhwa of the Congress.

In India’s patriarchal set-up, being a widow is almost tantamount to a curse word, in the way that ‘munde’, is used in Kannada. A widow’s lot in India is indeed pathetic, as even today her presence is considered inauspicious at religious functions. She is not offered kumkum nor supposed to wear flowers and in places like Bengal, expected to give up eating non-vegetarian, which is said to incite carnal passions. But for the leader of a country who coined the phrase ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padao’ to use the word widow as a derogatory term is unpardonable.

Naysayers who have a problem with women actors turning into politicians need to be provided a ready reckoner with the list of male actors-turned politicians. Of these N T Rama Rao and M G Ramachandran became chief ministers, whilst others like Shatrughna Sinha, Vinod Khanna and Raj Babbar hail from tinsel town.

Considering the perceptions about women in general that are listed here, is it any surprise over Parliament and the public at large being upset over Adhir Ranjan’s use of the word, patni? Patni or vidhwa, either way, becomes a cuss word.

Buried in the Indian mindset is deep-rooted patriarchy that views women as property, including the wife. How else can one explain the chasm between the way that one views the word Rashtrapati vis-à-vis Rashtrapati? Anyway, with Madam Murmu now at the helm of affairs, it may be time to do away with this anachronism of a name, both for the position that she holds and for the building that she has occupied. Considering the number of name changes and christenings that the country has witnessed in the last decade, this should be a minor matter to be attended to, in the midst of all the momentous changes that are being planned.

Women parliamentarians may be well advised to stick together when it comes to sexist remarks, rather than being divided across party lines. Also, all MPs and MLAs could be educated about the Vishaka guidelines at the workplace, by having them translated into all the languages of the country and making compulsory reading material for all concerned.

(The author is an independent writer)