Brinda Karat, CPI (M) leader, said here on Friday that the attack on the Indian Constitution by the present regime was going hand in hand with the promotion of “manuvadi” values to the detriment of women’s progress.
She was speaking at a seminar on ‘Anxieties of Democracy in Contemporary India’ organised by Union of Progressive Organisations in memory of socialist Pa. Mallesh.
Ms. Karat said never in Independent India had women faced such challenges that threatened to erode the rights which Indian women secured through their own struggles and resistance, as under the present regime.
This is not a conjecture or a prediction but was happening in the present, she added pointing out that these rights were not granted by maharajas or some religious texts but was guaranteed by the Constitution and secured through struggles.
Ms. Karat said that women were most affected by the “assault on the Constitution” which, she said, was being in the process of being replaced by a theocratic framework advocated by the BJP, RSS and their extensive family.
She said the element of majoritarianism that had crept into politics did not imply a majority in Parliament but an identity based on religion to which all other institutions were being subjugated.
Citing the example of the Bilkis Bano case in which the Gujarat government had granted remission to 11 accused (subsequently cancelled by the Supreme Court), Ms. Karat said the religious identity of the victim and the perpetrators determined the trajectory of justice.
Referring to another case in which a women was murdered by her friend, Ms. Karat said the BJP/RSS ecosystem highlighted the religious identity of the perpetrator instead of condemning what was a heinous crime.
“The religious identification of the victim and the perpetrators gives us the message that in today’s India fight for justice by the victims of sexual assault will be determined by their religious identity,” she added.
Ms. Karat said the present system supportive of “manuvadi” values was also protective of the upper castes in cases related to atrocities on Dalits.
Referring to the socio-economic situation in rural India, Ms. Karat said the brutality of poverty was stark in a country which was becoming more and more unequal because of the pro-rich policies of the government as a result of which 1 per cent of the people controlled 40 per cent of the wealth of the country.
Ms. Karat said the percentage of unemployed women was on the rise while the widow pension had not increased even by ₹1 in the last 10 years in real terms though subsidies for the rich was increasing.
