BJP: The False Crusader for Women’s Rights

On one hand the Bhartiya Janta Party gave us their famous slogan -“Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” while on the other hand they are hell bent on becoming a laughing stock for being hypocrites time and again! This is the same party that opposed the women reservation bill (2008) aimed at reserving 33 percent seats in the lower house of the parliament, Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies, for women.

After coming to power as the CM of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath said, “If someone casts an evil eye on our mothers and sisters, they won’t be spared.” He formed the anti- Romeo squads to protect the ‘honour of women’.

Fun fact: This is the same Yogi who opposed the Women Reservation Bill in 2010. In an essay published on his website (yogiadityanath.in) in 2014, the monk made a long-drawn argument against reservation for women. In his essay titled ‘Matrashakti – Bharatiya Sanskriti Ke Sandarbh Mein’, he argued: women are surging ahead in every aspect of life. If this is the natural course of things, what is the need to hurry things unnecessarily (with reservations)? Yogi opined that women – described in our ‘shashtras’ in glorious terms – always need to be protected, lest their ‘energy’ goes to waste. He added that the protection accorded to a woman by her father, husband, and son is only to channelise her energy – to make her more powerful. It is only a protected (in other words, controlled) woman, who gives birth to great men or ‘mahapurush’. He also warned that women who acquire male traits turn into demons or ‘rakshasas’ (and hence need protection, for their own good and for the good of the society). Yes readers, this is none other than our dear Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, who sat silently on the stage while his supporter was giving an open call to drag dead Muslim women out of their graves and rape them!

Another classic case is of Sakshi Maharaj, the M.P from Unnao, who was in highlights for making controversial statements. In one such statement, he asked the Hindu women to produce 4 kids each in order to surpass the fast increasing Muslim population. These statements clearly expose how women are considered mere production centres by him. This is the rotten mentality by which we are being governed!

The Bhartiya Janta party has shown its ‘true colours’ amidst the recent Anti-CAA protests where the protesting women, sitting on ‘dharna’ were brutally lathi-charged by the police on government orders. This government remained silent when the ABVP ‘goondas’ entered the JNU campus with lathis and spared no-one. Instead of filing an FIR against the accused, FIRs were lodged against the victims, including the JNUSU President Aishee Ghosh.

India has never seen a government where its ministers give insulting statements against the women of one community. This racist government is responsible for defaming the brave women of Shaheen Bagh. Amit Malviya is the BJP IT cell chief who claimed that Shaheen Bagh protestors were a political gameplay of the Congress party, along with sharing a video where a shopkeeper in Shaheen bagh area was seen claiming that the protests are not spontaneous, but are being ‘professionally organised’. He had claimed that women there are being paid Rs 500-700 per day to sit and ‘protest’. He had also stated that free food is being provided and ‘protestors’ are being brought on a shift basis to make the venue appear crowded all the time. It seems like there is no place in India for dissent. Anyone who stands against the Nazi policies of the government will be targeted and the government can go to any extent while doing so.

The hypocrite government crossed all limits when BJP MP Parvesh Verma made a shameless statement where he said, "Lakhs of people gather there (Shaheen Bagh). People of Delhi will have to think and take a decision. They'll enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, kill them," instilling fear of rape as a campaign message during a recent Delhi poll rally.

Is this behaviour acceptable from a responsible political leader? And the most ironical response is from our dear Prime Minister who is always silent on issues where he should be taking a stand. As his old ritual, he remained silent on this issue too, encouraging his pawns to openly monger hatred among people and fear among women! From Giriraj Singh commenting on Sonia Gandhi’s skin complexion to Pannalal Shakya, a BJP MLA from Guna, Madhya Pradesh, enlightening us with his brazen ideology that ‘Women should rather remain infertile than produce kids who are ‘not sanskari' & who deform society’, we have seen countless morons.

We the ‘women’ of India want you to keep your ‘gyan’ to yourself. If this is how you are going to uplift and protect us then we’re sorry, but we don’t need your concern. In the past few years, your mentality has been completely exposed, so to be precise, we have no hopes from the bastards sitting at the Centre.

- Khansa Sundus