The President’s Son

He sat there. He sat there like an unruly child who is punished by a strict teacher to face the wall. All this while, Arnab Goswami hectored as only he can. It’s an image that continues to haunt me, a couple of days after a friend mailed me a link along with the triumphant subject line ‘Fixed.’

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Please don’t get me wrong. I have no sympathy to waste on Abhijit Mukherjee. But once we are done with the taunts and jibes at the President’s son for calling women protesters ‘painted and dented,’ it may also be time to do some soul searching as a nation of women haters. Because that’s what we are. Despite the fact that we worship a goddess for 10 days every year and make it a public celebration with blaring loud speakers in most parts of the country.

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The chilling rape that brought the protesters on the streets was about hate. The venom Mukherjee spewed was also about hate.  I have watched the video where he vents his shameful diatribe. You can make out he is not being flippant. He meant everything that he said.

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He is the President’s son. The President of India as we all know is something of an intellectual. He has headed many ministries. He has written books.  We are told every year he goes back to his village for Durga Puja.  His daughter is a Kathak dancer. She is someone who just like the rest of us, bristled in anger when she heard what her brother had to say.  So how come the son turned out to be such a moron? I can’t stop wondering if there was no emotional and psychological investment in him by his parents. How come he is not just ashamed of having these regressive views but also has the misplaced courage to air them in public?

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He sat through the belting of Goswami who milks every cause towards one end- Arnab Goswami, the saviour of India. In all this what was forgotten is that Arnab Goswami has no right to publicly censure anyone on this issue, after Times Now refused to morph the picture of the Kolkata rape victim, allegedly only to garner better TRPS.  And to think the same man who could be held responsible for revealing the identity of  a rape victim turns into a one man judge and jury to indict Abhijit Mukherjee on prime time television. The intriguing thing is Mukherjee’s response was to parrot just one line. ‘I am sorry for hurting the sentiments of people.’

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To be publicly shamed and humiliated like this by another man is acceptable to Mukherjee. But nothing could make him say that he is truly sorry for what he said. That he is ashamed because by saying all that he insulted not just the women in his family but also the women of this country.  Finally it was a woman panelist in the same show to come to his rescue. She got embarrassed at the public dressing down Mukherjee was receiving by the obnoxious Goswami and called for it to stop. But even that act of compassion by a lady to save his dignity could not compel him to tender a real apology to the women of India.

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Maybe that is expecting too much. Mukherjee will never apologise to the women in India. It’s okay for him to get publicly rebuked by another man. But saying sorry to a woman will dent his macho image. Like all Indian men. What can we do? It’s in our genes. This is what we have learnt through our epics. Did the Kauravas ever apologise to Draupadi? I am not sure.

I went to Google to find out more about Abhijit Mukherjee. I discovered he was a corporate citizen before turning into a politician. He was the General Manager- Corporate Social Responsibility for the public sector steel undertaking SAIL.  Because of the quality of English he speaks and the monkey cap he was sporting, it was easy for anglophiles to dismiss him as semi literate and make fun of his accent. But clearly being the son of a powerful politician has meant that he has been handed positions of power and privilege without deserving them. Look how easy it was for him to turn into an elected representative once his father vacated the seat. The dynasty is not just about the Gandhis.

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The difference between Mukherjee and the rest of us Indian men, is not that he was saying something very contrary to what most of us believe in our hearts but that he got carried away with the sense of entitlement he must have always had and put his foot squarely in the mouth. And so he ended up being reprimanded by another man who believes that he is entitled to even greater privileges of rabble rousing because he made his news channel the most popular one in the country with all his rantings.

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The President of India has been a good provider. He has been able to get his son a good job in the public sector when he needed it. He has also sent him to parliament. And like we Indians like to say, by god’s grace, who knows, Abhijit Mukherjee may even be a minister one day. Maybe even the PM.  Maybe even the President. Just like his father.

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After all we live in a democracy. A democracy by the men of India, for the men of India. And the men in our country believe they have many rights including the right to brutally violate a woman.  The women on the other hand don’t even have the right to protest.

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I do have the niggling hope though that in the years to come the President may not need to go to his village for Durga Puja. Legend has it that Durga finally got exasperated at the stupidity of men and rose to destroy the evil.

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I would like to think that the day is not far when many Durgas will arise on the streets of India to destroy the inherent evil Indian men carry.