Boys can be boys, but they should not make the mistake of turning rapists just because Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav promised to amend the new rape laws, that can now send erring guys to the gallows, if his party comes to power after the current elections. First, there is no guarantee of him coming to power and then Mulayam, a conniving wheeler-dealer at heart, is a proven opportunist who cannot be trusted with his words.

Mulayam, a wannabe prime minister, is controversy’s favourite child, and he hit a new low last week with his comments on the new anti-rape laws, introduced after the 2012 rape-and-murder of a Delhi woman. He believes they are being misused by women to punish their boyfriends, frivolously putting such allegations down to a romance gone bitter. “When their friendship sours,” he asserts, “the girl complains she has been raped.”

Will boys be hanged for rape? Boys will be boys, mistakes happen and for that, death sentence is a bit too excessive punishment, Mulayam contended at a poll rally in Moradabad. This was, obviously, a well-orchestrated response to the recent court verdict in the Shakti Mills case that rocked Mumbai a year ago. The three repeat offenders were awarded death for the crime and the heinous manner of committing it.

Mulayam’s insensitivity at a time when most of India is up in arms over dreadful crimes against women, particularly the despicable acts of rape, reflects a cynical disdain for society’s views, which even a hardened cynical politician like him can’t afford. It’s hard to imagine such a mediaeval mindset could exist in this modern age, particularly in an elected leader, at a time when social norms are sensitive towards gender equality, protection of women’s rights and an individual’s right to make his/her own choices.

A day later Mulayam’s lieutenant in Maharashtra Abu Asim Azmi seems to have taken a cue from his leader to add fuel to the raging fire: he declared that women who had extramarital sex should be “hanged”. Azmi believes that if “any woman, whether married or unmarried, goes along with a man, with or without her consent, she should be hanged.” The patriarchal opinions of both are aimed at pandering to their constituents and thereby polarising the electorate.

In the midst of a bruising multi-cornered battle of democracy, Mulayam speaking in support of the criminals, involved in as brutal a crime as rape, is not just part of the SP’s pattern of misogyny, but also terrifying in its presumption that it will go unpunished. The party and its ageing chief have been strident opponents of the new laws and women’s reservation in parliament.

The twisted logic used by one of India’s most senior politicians whose party governs the nation’s most populous and politically significant state, not once but repeatedly, is evidence of his smug belief that women don’t matter. When Mulayam addressed crowds in Moradabad, he was addressing his pet audience - the male hinterland voter - completely disregarding the issues of women’s safety that have been at the forefront of debate since December 16, 2012. In the true tradition of patriarchy, the fact that women comprise 49% of voters is not something he bothered even to take into account.

The country has so often yawned shamelessly at preposterous, demeaning, dehumanising and disrespectful missives uttered by politicians while slumbering in the shadow of democracy. These utterances show that gender discrimination runs deep in this patriarchal society. If political representatives, elected to legislate to defend the weak and the victimised, defend criminals from public platforms and get away, it shows the inherent and unique weakness of our democratic process in weeding out the undesirables.

Why do they still continue in such positions, polluting the nation with their venom and vitriol without any fear of the law or society? Why does Indian society want such men to lead? If the political class fails to stem the degeneration of such discourse and if the Election Commission is incapable of cracking the whip and taking such leaders down, the real power to do that lies with the people. What is at stake is the credibility of electoral democracy.

 

Mamata-EC spat

 

There are many ways regional heavyweights choose to excite their constituencies in the midst of national elections. While Mulayam did it with pro-rapist outbursts, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took on the Election Commission for an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation recently. But within 24 hours after it erupted, the crisis has blown over, narrowly avoiding a very unpleasant predicament.

At the core of the crisis was the EC’s decision to transfer eight senior police officers in the districts and an IAS officer during election time, fearing their being in their existing posts could prejudice fair elections. Banerjee responded by abusing the EC, calling it an agent of the Centre, the Congress and all her presumed foes.

The EC’s decision to shift officials to ensure fair conduct of polls is not new, nor is the political opposition to it. But Banerjee’s stand is breathtaking in its temerity and typical of her approach to administration. Her conduct was hardly short of scandalous. But in the end, the EC prevailed as the CM backed down. She has cut a sorry figure, and other leaders should take a lesson from this episode.

Last year also, she had defied the state EC over the timing of panchayat polls and the deployment of central paramilitary forces, until the court reminded her of the law that governs such elections and validated the state EC’s decision. This time, had the state government - pre-eminently the chief secretary - not blinked, the implications would have been dire with a constitutional crisis and postponement of the elections in state.

It could not have been easy for a person like Banerjee to defer to any authority or accept that she had erred, politically and constitutionally, in taking on the EC in this manner. Her method of political engagement presupposes an enemy, whether it is a corporate conglomerate or the EC. It is the defining pattern of her politics that has remained unchanged even after she came to power in 2011 in a historic victory, unseating the 34-year old Left dispensation after years of mobilisation in West Bengal.