Who is to blame?

In recent turn of events, when people swamped streets in protest against violence against women, has taken nation and media by storm. Govt as usual remains unfazed by whatever people want. It took 7 days, 2 more days after Rahul Gandhi made an appearance (still looking for answer to the question, WHY HIM?), for our esteemed head of state to feel the pain after strongly condemning the issue. Yes this time a little more strongly than previous, I am sure potential molesters are shivering with fear somewhere. Delhi CM repeated, in tears this time, she has no control over police or public. No one seemed to know the answer to where was all that water coming from in middle of water deprived national capital.  Oh yes, govt were truly protecting your right to protest. They started by shutting down metro station, applying sec 144 and then using tear gases. Till the time of writing, people in power had no clue as to who ordered these decisions.

 Even our national journalist Darkha but(t) felt the pain deeply and raised questions about victim’s and women’s condition in oh-so-madern national capital (counting only the total square feet area occupied by malls and multiplexes in Gurgaon and Noida and discounting everything else). Although she had her doubts weather these protests were secular or not. Please feel free to reply to her on twitter when you find an answer. Police were brave and quick in action against people who were trying to get to president to come out and talk to them. still confused if we still follow normal voting procedure in electing govt or does present house runs on self sustained power and whose money is it that they are getting salaries with? But I might not be secular enough to ask these questions so never mind me.

 Let me clarify by saying I didn’t go to protests because of office commitments, also because I am depressed with, I repeat DEPRESSED with the present govt and don’t expect anything good to come out of their decision. but these people were those who still had hope that govt will listen. Kudos to men and women who braved the cold, water cannons, tear gases and deaf govt to make their point visible.

  But talking about the reasons, and I am probably going to take a lot of flak for this, shouldn’t we be looking at ourselves instead of blaming the police or govt for not policing us properly? Aren’t WE the problem? Who are these people passing comments, whistling, groping women in public places? How do they do it despite knowing they will return to face their mother/sister or daughter? Although there are good men who won’t touch a woman without her permission, those who offend are certainly among us. I personally know some men who think it’s manly to stare, follow women. Just because they are standing outside a disco means there character needs judging. Won’t allow their sisters to even talk to other guys but it’s ok when they are flirting with random women. Have opinions on weather a woman should work after marriage or not. And the moment any logical discussion is about to start, we start shoving tradition, culture and values in the face of counter point of view.

  So maybe, just maybe, the problem lies inside us and deep rooted in the way of life, which tells us its ok to treat women as second-class citizen whose every decision in life should be ideally governed by ‘what society will say’. What good is a culture if it prevents us from celebrating the act of giving life? YES I AM TALKING ABOUT SEX. Let me say that again SEX. SEX. Uncomfortable? Made you turn in your place? Precisely my point. If we teach our son’s to respect women and ask before touching or invading their privacy, maybe we wont need to remove tinted glasses from cars and shutdown pubs/kill nightlife in a city. And rape is NOT about pleasure, it is more about exercising power because a person dared to question your point of view.

  But that’s just me. People are justified in their anger against govt for not acting, and trust me I share your anger in more ways than one, but as far as women are concerned, somehow introspection is more required than pelting stones at rajpath. Mothers, talk to your kids. They know more than you think they do. Tell them, it’s not ok to touch a woman without her permission. As a society, we owe this to women. There is a reason men cant produce life, women are empowered with it. respect it.

  Agree/disagree? Feel free to comment \m/oO\m/