The smile must have vanished by now.

I’m quite sure that Rita Bahuguna had no idea whatsoever what the hell was Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989 (SC/ST). She never knew that merely saying what she did was enough for her to be sent to jail and that too without much of a chance of getting bail as the offense is a non bailable one. Had she known this she wouldn’t really have said that. Off course, after every political party including her own criticized her for this statement and when she found herself staring at a prison cell, Rita Bahuguna promptly apologized to Mayawati. Unfortunately, it was too late for her. Mayawati had set the ball rolling by then. And the irony of it all is that this act was promulgated by no one else but Congress party itself when Rajiv Gandhi was the PM in 1989.

Actually, Rita Bahuguna has committed a huge blunder. As we saw in the recent elections, BSP, which was going downhill in UP and where Congress was beginning to gain an upper hand, has now found an opportunity to regroup and make this an issue of oppression of a Dalit woman. Off course, we all know that there was nothing casteist about her remark. Nonetheless, Mayawati has made it into one because fact is that she is indeed a Dalit and therefore, legally she is right in filing a case against her. Congress, which was looking to build on it’s leads it had gained now suddenly finds itself on a sticky wicket in UP. And Mayawati will surely continue her tirade against Congress on this issue to ensure that Dalits who were starting to swing away from her towards Congress now come back into her fold. No wonder Congress has distanced itself from these remarks. We can be sure of an interesting fight between both these parties in the near future. And we may just see Mayawati having the last laugh.

As far as the remarks itself are concerned, there is no doubt that they were in bad taste, even for Mayawati who is not exactly my favorite politician. And tell you what? Mayawati too has said something similar about Mulayam Singh’s family while SP was in power in UP. I saw the clipping on NDTV yesterday where she said the same thing as Rita Bahuguna. To tell you the truth I was really surprised when I saw this. She has the gumption to file a case against another woman for a statement which she herself had made to begin with. Well, no case was filed against her by the SP, off course. Do you know why? Because there is no law which indicts a Dalit if he or she makes such statements in public against people from other castes. What a stupid irony? If anyone insults a Dalit in public he or she can be put behind bars under a charge of a non bailable offense but if a Dalit does the same for others there is nothing much you can do about it. Crazy, I know but that’s India for you.

Who burnt Bahuguna's house?

At a humane level it is actually quite painful to see women politicians using such language for other women. But being humane is possibly not the same thing as being a politician, for some at least. Be it Mayawati or Rita Bahuguna they are both guilty of using inappropriate language. And it doesn’t bode well for Indian politics. These people need to learn how to conduct themselves in public. Don’t they?

Apropos 17 Jul 09. Rita Bahuguna has been granted bail today. Well, good for her. Seems like justice will prevail after all.

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Posted on July 16th, 2009 India calling • Tags: Bahuguna, compensation, conduct, crime, Mayawati, rape, Rita, victim, women. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback