Indian party leader sparks backlash over rape remarks

Annie BANERJI | AFP

NEW DELHI: The mother of a student who was fatally gang-raped on a bus led the outrage Friday against an Indian political leader who described three convicted multiple rapists as “boys” who had made “mistakes.”
During a rally in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav said his Samajwadi Party would try to change the law on punishments for rapists after India’s ongoing elections as he spoke out in defense of three men who have been sentenced to death for repeat sexual assaults.
“Three poor fellows have been sentenced to death. Should rape cases lead to hanging?” said the 74-year-old Yadav, whose party governs the electorally crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
“They are boys, they make mistakes,” he added in reference to the three men aged 28, 21 and 19 who were sentenced in Mumbai last week for their part in two gang-rapes.
They were the first death sentences to be handed down for multiple sex attacks since the law was toughened following the outrage over the December 2012 attack on the bus in New Delhi.
The mother of the 23-year-old victim, who died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks after the assault, called Yadav a “disgusting and shameless” politician and urged voters to reject leaders who “don’t understand the torture women go through.”
“His comments hurt us so much,” the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons,said.
“Every day women get raped and they are all mistakes? He talks about doing away with the death sentence for rapists but parents like us feel even death is not enough for rapists. They deserve worse.”
Yadav’s remarks sparked a backlash on social media where #backingrapists and ‘Mulayam Singh’ were top trending topics on Twitter.
Political parties and women’s rights groups poured scorn on the 74-year-old ex-wrestler over his “misogynistic” comments and demanded an apology.
“Comments by such a senior leader is not only objectionable, but also it is sad and shameful. Mulayam Singh’s remarks show how much respect he has for women in his heart, and how irresponsible he is toward women’s security,” ruling Congress party spokesman Meem Afzal said.
Ranjana Kumari, head of the Center for Social Research in New Delhi, asked the Election Commission to take action against Yadav as “calling rape a small mistake is directly encouraging rape.”
That anger was fueled by rambling comments from the party’s leader in the state of Maharashtra who appeared to call for rape victims to be hanged along with their attackers on the grounds that they had extra-marital sex.
Although the party’s power is largely limited to Uttar Pradesh, its strength in what is India’s most populous state could mean it has a kingmaking role in coalition negotiations after the general elections wrap up next month.

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Those chosen for destruction are first made mad. Else, how does one explain the antics of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister?
I know most of us have an enduring fondness for Bollywood stars and their endless fun and games. Those who can afford it have the shiniest of them jiving to their tunes at private parties. For the right price, you could even have Shahrukh Khan, the reigning mogul, entertain guests at your son’s or daughter’s wedding.
But UP is not the personal fiefdom of the Yadavs nor was this an occasion for national celebration like Aug. 15 or Jan. 26 when those in power can have an excuse to splurge public funds for personal glory.
Saifai is the home town of the Yadavs and the so-called Saifai festival was nothing but a long and decadent feudal affair, something India has never seen before.
Bollywood’s A and B-listers including Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Madhuri Dikshit and others descended on the remote, rural Saifai to entertain the Yadav clan at the party that went on for 14 nights.
Seven private jets were pressed into service to fly the Bollywood glitterati in luxurious comfort and at the taxpayer’s expense from Mumbai and from around the world where they were shooting at the time.
It was rather a rare sight to see the father-son duo of Mulayam and Akhilesh sit next to each other and goofily grin from ear to ear as Kapil Sharma shared a crude joke or Madhuri sensuously swayed to Gulzar’s rendition of Begum Akhter’s popular Thumri:
Hamri atariya pe
Aaja re sanwariya
Dekha-dekhi tanik hoi jaaye
(Come over, my love, to the roof so we can steal a moment together).
It is amazing what Gulzar can still come up with at this age, ever surprising you with his poetic genius and way with words. But I digress.
Returning to the Yadavs, no one grudges the father-son duo and their family-owned concern occasional diversion. After all, our poor politicians work so hard all the time for public good. They deserve a break, from time to time just like everyone else, I guess.
What makes the Saifai Mahotsav truly baffling and an abomination though is its timing. For not far from where Mulayam and Akhilesh were having a ball—they reminded you of father-son villain duos in Bollywood flicks from the 80s, heartily enjoying an item number together—people are dying. Of cold, hunger and sheer human apathy.
Forced out of their homes and villages by marauding, murdering and raping mobs in September and thrown out of relief camps last month by an incredibly callous administration, thousands of families live out in the open, on the streets, literally, braving an unforgiving winter.
Adding insult to injury was the wild fantasy of the Delhi Police, which sees Indian Mujahideen crawling everywhere, about Lashkar terrorists from across the border recruiting in Muzaffarnagar! After riots, rapes and being uprooted from homes and relief camps, what next for the lot? Being picked up as Pakistani spies and terrorists? Will they stop at anything?
The Muzaffarnagar camps were bulldozed, literally, by an irate state administration, something even Narendra Modi couldn’t dare in Gujarat. This was after television news cameras zoomed in on their shocking, incredibly pathetic conditions--sans basic sanitation, medical aid and protection against elements. No wonder children kept dying, bringing more and more negative media attention to the administration.
No wonder the state shut the relief camps after Mulayam’s revelation that the BJP, BSP activists were living in these camps “disguised as victims.” This was the only way to keep television cameras out.
Riot victims were told to “go back” from where they came. Which they tried to do but were chased away by the powerful Jat landlords and Hindu groups that unleashed the reign of terror in Muzaffarnagar in September and have since taken over their homes and farms.
So they are out there — wet, hungry and shivering under a cruel, winter sky, hopelessly trying to keep warm by burning whatever they could lay their hands on. This even as the socialist leaders of Samajwadi Party, Bollywood stars and other VIPs partied in the cozy comfort of the Saifai Mahotsav. The contrast couldn’t have been sharper.
Intruding television cameras were chased out of Saifai as well after the Bollywood bonanza and all the fun and frolic that went with it made it to prime time.
Meanwhile, a group of his senior UP ministers and other SP worthies have taken off on a 20-day “study tour” of seven nations. Senior minister and Mulayam confidant, Azam Khan, explained the junket as a Commonwealth-sponsored program to “study democracy and governance.” Beginning from Turkey, it will take the honorable ministers to Greece, Egypt, Italy, Netherlands, Britain and the UAE.
By the way, save Britain, none of these countries has so far made it to the Commonwealth. And since when has Egypt become the role model for democracy and good governance? And Azam Khan is supposed to be the tallest Muslim leader in North India. He is clearly not above the appalling apathy and callousness in which his party seems to revel these days. (Talking of apathy, there are 69 Muslim MLAs in UP Assembly and 43 of them come from the SP alone. Where are they when their people need them the most?)
So what has gone wrong with Mulayam? Has he totally lost his marbles? The socialist soul of Ram Manohar Lohia, the ideological guru of Mulayam and many other stalwarts, must be having a hard time figuring out.
So, as Saeed Naqvi eloquently asks, why is Maulana Mulayam bent upon hacking his own support base? It is as if the man, who has never shied away from staking claim to the nation’s leadership, and his son are on a political suicide mission.
After all, Mulayam has always worn his “secular” credentials on his sleeve and unabashedly wooed Muslims, election after election. Indeed, Muslims who form nearly 20 percent of UP’s population played a decisive role in bringing the SP back to power in 2012 with a huge mandate.
Why is Mulayam now undermining and hacking away the formidable alliance he built of Yadav-Muslim-backward communities?
Either he is confident of getting away with murder and retaining his loyal Muslim vote bank with the help of a few pliable clerics at the time of elections. Or he has come to the conclusion that Muslims are now dispensable and the powerful, landowning Jats in Western UP whom the SP, BJP and the Congress have been aggressively courting, can adequately compensate.
On the other hand, this is also a sign of the growing political weightlessness and powerlessness of the nearly 200-million strong community — three times the population of Germany and Egypt. It is also a comment on the spectacular irrelevance of Muslim leadership.
However, Mulayam and company live in a fool’s paradise if they think they can get away with this. For it is not just Muslims who are hopping mad over the devil-may-care arrogance and incredible insensitivity that the party has displayed over the past few weeks and months. Indians across the country and across all distinctions are angry--very angry with the SP and its incompetent government in UP.
If live public reactions and feedback on television channels are any indication, a stinging rebuke awaits the party in the 2014 General Elections and next Assembly polls. The party is over for Mulayam and son.

- Aijaz Z. Syed is a Gulf based commentator.
Email: aijaz.syed@hotmail.com

Aijaz Zaka Syed
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to postpone its proposed countrywide agitation against the failure of the ruling coalition at the eleventh hour. The BJP had planned to launch the weeklong protest from May 27, asking its activists and supporters to court arrest. However, the BJP backtracked on its plan following the Maoists’ attack on a Congress party convoy in Bastar, Chattisgarh, killing several top leaders of the state. The BJP condemned the attack and postponed its agitation.
Perhaps, the BJP had erred in assuming that its agitation would draw massive support, but when reality dawned on it, the party was compelled to fall back on Chattisgarh incident as an excuse and postpone its agitation.
The reason of this self-confidence in the BJP was based on in its perception that by creating the bogey of Muslim appeasement by the Congress-led UPA government, it has succeeded once again in polarizing the Hindu community in its favor.
The BJP has recently also targeted Uttar Pradesh (UP) government led by the Samajwadi Party (SP) on this issue. There is no denying that to attract Muslim vote, various parties have in the past repeatedly made false promises and assurances to the community. But if Muslims had really been appeased in India, the so-called secular parties would have been left without any political card to woo the country’s largest minority community. There would not have been any bias against the Muslim community in the country. They would not be considered as second-class citizens by Hindu hard-liners. Doubts and speculations would not have been there over their constitutional rights, including that of equality, the freedom of speech and pursuing their religious duties.
Of course, it would be incorrect to assume that each and every Indian Muslim is a victim to such prejudices and biases. It would be equally wrong to blame all Hindus for being biased against Muslims.
However, had the BJP leaders not started objecting to what they described as “Muslim appeasement” policy of the UPA government, the issue may not have been deliberated upon. True, the UPA government has promised to address certain grievances of the Muslim community. Now, the big question is whether the government has taken any action to remove and/or at least reduce the same? If some effort has genuinely been made, why should it be viewed as “Muslim appeasement”? 
It is surprising that several political leaders have raised objections to even considering and proposing action to mitigate sufferings of Indian Muslims. What does this indicate? Does not this imply that they do not want Muslims to prosper like any other community? It is indeed stunning that suggestions and proposals made to address challenges facing Muslims in secular-India should be viewed as a means to “appease” them. Well, if these problems are not seriously taken care of, it will prove to be a very dangerous, anti-secular approach of the federal and state governments. Ignoring the plight of the Muslim community or sometimes rather perpetuating it would imply that politicians in power are more concerned about appeasing anti-Muslim extremists. They are more concerned about not annoying them than addressing problems facing Muslims.
The Congress-led UPA government has recently proposed to take some corrective measures for the welfare of the Muslim community. These include providing justice to innocent Muslims who have been wrongfully detained as “terrorists.” So, if the government is considering setting up fast-track courts to look into these cases, why is the BJP agitated about it? Why the BJP leaders are calling it appeasement? Would the BJP prefer innocents Muslims to continue languishing in jails for no fault of theirs?
This policy cannot be described as that of appeasing Muslims. It aims to provide justice to them, which all citizens are constitutionally entitled to. The BJP is apparently bent on using this communal card with hope of winning support of the majority community. If parliamentary polls were not around the corner, the BJP would not have targeted a non-existent policy by trying to whip up communal passions.
NILOFAR SUHRAWARDY