| |
Indian politics: The women
on top
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The latest round of state elections
in India has thrown up three women chief ministers -
Shiela Dikshit in Delhi, leading the sole Congress
charge, Vansundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan and Uma
Bharati in Madhya Pradesh, heading the new generation of
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) women leaders taking over
the reins in two of the biggest states (with a combined
population of over 70 million).
In Indian
politics, women have always played a powerful role,
though the fair sex still forms an abysmal percentage of
the overall elected representatives in the country.
However, to make a generalization that these important
ladies have risen to the top of their field dominated by
men, through the dint of feminine touch defined as an
element of gentleness in an otherwise crass profession,
will be wrong. If at all these women have been more men
than men themselves and continually disproved that when
it comes to politics, women are of a kinder and gentler
persuasion, an argument that is often used to favor
reservations for women in legislatures.
It is
either that these lady leaders do not possess such fine
qualities, proving one of Dilbert's principles that
although more women will join public life, nothing will
change since women are as dumb as men. Or they have
realized that such niceties do not work in the hurly
burly of Indian politics and a nation where the sex
ratio has taken an alarming dip.
In one sweep,
the northern heartland of India is headed for a feminine
touch. Dikshit, Raje and Bharati have been around for a
while, but never pitch-forked into the center of public
consciousness like their sisters in the field. They
include the mercurial Jayalalitha, the chief minister of
Tamil Nadu and Mayawati, who both go by one name, the
latter until recently the chief minister of the largest
state in India, Uttar Pradesh, and the undisputed queen
of the dalits (considered of the lower-caste).
Then there is Mamata Banerjee, the rabble-rousing union
minister without portfolio, who has repeatedly failed to
make her mark in West Bengal, but constantly a pain in
the neck for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, due to
the urgencies of coalition politics.
Of course
in the current lot of women leaders is Sonia Gandhi, the
leader of the Opposition and president of the Congress
party, who owes her lineage to her illustrious
mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister
of India and herself daughter of the first premier,
Jawaharlal Nehru.
Leading the pack of "women in
pants" are Jayalalitha and Maywati, going purely by the
yardstick of misdemeanors such as corruption, arrogance,
rudeness, sheer preference for sycophants and
opportunism for which their male counterparts are known.
There have been instances when both have shown a
disdain for the law and attempted to subvert the course
of justice. The charge of manipulating witnesses has
been leveled against Jayalalitha, with the result that
the Supreme Court has sought the removal of corruption
cases against her from Tamil Nadu to the neighboring
state of Karnataka.
Mayawati, too, like
Jayalalitha, is suspected of possessing assets
disproportionate to her sources of income. While in
power, she slapped more than a hundred cases against
current chief minister and bete noir Mulayam
Singh Yadav, as well as let the police loose to round up
her political opponents. Jayalalitha went a step further
and had previous chief minister and another bete
noir M Karunanidhi physically lifted, assaulted and
thrown into jail, by the police.
Mamata Banerjee
has shown plenty of guts in taking on the hoodlums of
the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal,
but she has never fallen short of taking a shot at every
myopic opportunism that has come her way. As a former
union railway minister of India, her only focus was on
strengthening the rail system of her constituency in
West Bengal. She has been in and out of arrangements
with the BJP or Congress as it has suited her interests,
though it has also been the cause of her downfall.
To talk of Dikshit, Bharati and Raje in the same
breath as Mayawati and Jayalalitha would not be right,
but these ladies, too, have had their share of tough
battles and taken on and defeated men using a heavy dose
of guile and political instinct.
Dikshit took on
the veteran Madan Lal Khurana and fought off the
anti-incumbency factor to retain power. She carefully
crafted her incorruptible image as well as pushed
development of which the voters of Delhi had first-hand
experience in the form of a slew of flyovers to ease
traffic jams. To keep her numerous detractors at bay she
has maintained a comfort level with Sonia Gandhi, using
her protective cocoon whenever it has suited her
interest.
Bharati, known by the sobriquet "sexy
sanyasin", is no plain Jane and is known for her
rabble-rousing skills, as well as for the ease with
which she flirts with the media, slithers in and out of
controversy and keeps her, well, sexy smile in place.
Ousting Digvijay Singh, well entrenched as chief
minister of Madhya Pradesh for over a decade, was no
mean feat. Until the end, few believed that she could
pull off such a spectacular victory. These state
elections were, after all, personality driven. But at
the helm, Bharati could be a loose cannon. Her demeanor
is scarcely the most mature, and she is known to be
impetuous.
Few people, including many in the
BJP, gave Raje much of a chance in the initial days to
take on Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Pulled out
from the center where she was union minister for
small-scale industries, she reluctantly took up the
challenge, but picked the nuances of state politics very
quickly. She dressed right for the occasion. Bright
ethnics replaced the chiffons and a bedecked Maharani
(Raje belongs to the Royal family of Rajasthan) boarded
a brand new rath (chariot) to take the message of
parivartan (change) around the state. She ensured
that the central machinery was cranked into position and
used well to help her cause. She made sure that Bhairon
Singh Shekhawat, the doyen of Rajasthan politics and the
incumbent vice president of India, lent more than a
shoulder in her support.
Indeed, one of the
criticisms being hurled at Sonia Gandhi consequent to
her party's defeat in the current round of state
elections has been her party's lack of opportunistic
pre-poll alliances with regional political outfits that
have cut into votes, thus benefiting the BJP. By playing
it straight and simple, Congress has lost out, several
analysts have commented.
Sonia, who models
herself on Indira, lacks the guile and guts that her
mother-in-law often demonstrated. After all, it was
Indira who imposed a state of emergency on the country
to protect herself from a court order challenging her
election. She went to jail, but bounced back to win the
elections again.
In Indian politics, it takes
such character to be more than a man, to be the woman on
top.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright 2003 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
