Does Being A Leader Is All What It Takes To Get Justice?

The Supreme Leader of the Bhaujan Samaj Party and a cult-figure among the Dalits, Mayawati was recently called a ‘prostitute’ by Former BJP’s Uttar Pradesh Unit Vice President Dayashankar Singh, which created a ruckus amongst the parliament as well as, internally among all the parties.

Mayawati is not just another leader but is considered a ‘goddess’ by many, and this comment infuriated all her followers, and as the Monsoon Session is going on in the parliament, Mayawati took the advantage of the opportunity and raised the issue there.

BJP as a result expelled Dayashankar from the assigned post, conveying a message of not tolerating any negative remark against a woman or a dalit.

But the question here arises that does all it takes for a woman to get justice immediately or to maintain her honour, is to be a leader? It clearly is not the first time that any party’s member, leader has spoken against a woman’s honour. Let’s take BJP as a reference itself.

BJP’s eminent leaders like Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath, Sadhvi Prachi, Babulal Gaur are among the few names who have been known to make remarks on women, rape, islam, but have not been taken any action against. WHY?

Sakshi Maharaj during a rally in Meerut made the outrageous comment of asking all the Hindu women to make at least 4 children to protect Hinduism. His bizarre request shocked everyone and gave an insight into the mindset of the party.

Not just this, Sakshi Maharaj has been known to often criticize Islam and call Islamic women no better than footwear, but yet, he was spared because apparently, the remarks that he made against were ordinary women and not big leaders.

The women were not considered goddesses by any but does this mean they do not deserve respect and honour.

Babulal Gaur, the former BJP’s Madhya Pradesh Home Minister once called Rape as a social crime which is sometimes good and sometimes bad. He was widely criticized for this statement but it took years and some more controversial statements for this former leader to resign from his post.

Today, when a leader like Mayawati is called a prostitute, immediate action is taken. Even the Parliament gets stirred, but when remarks or comments are made against women, be of any religion, where do our accountable authorities go and hide?

There often occurs a point that one should not apologise if one has not realised his/her mistake. Our leaders often make negative statements and do not realise what was wrong with them and hence, do not feel the need to apologise, instead come up with excerpts supporting the statement. Thus, once again, many of them in spite of making devious comments against a culture, religion, gender, remain spared.

In a recent interview, Dayashankar’s mother said that her son did not do anything wrong yet he apologised. She surely doesn’t understand that using derogatory remarks for a woman proves nothing but his sexist mindset. Realization is definitely lacking here but an action has still been taken. If it was an ordinary woman, his party must have come up with some explanations for the remark, but since it’s a personality with so many followers, a ‘devi’ indeed, action was taken.

So, does power is all you need to get someone punished? Does being an ordinary woman mean that a person could assassinate her character and get away with it?

It is good that immediate action was taken against Dayashankar because goons like him should not be spared, but isn’t that the whole point? PEOPLE LIKE HIM WHO DEGRADE WOMEN IN ANY MANNER SHOULD NOT BE SPARED.

If this power politics of politicians, lawmakers, continues, women empowerment can just remain a distant dream. The general public needs to think as well. If you see beyond power and respect women of all strata’s of society equally, then only real development can be done.

After all it is often seen that main questions get lost in the circus of politics.