For most other politicians, the headline to this piece would read differently - “Politician Under Fire for Sexist Remarks” or even “JD(U) Leader Tries to Backtrack After Furore Over Insensitive Comments.”
But Sharad Yadav stands defiant. To his mind, it seems, he has done no wrong and he will not apologise. And it is unlikely that any political heavyweight will try to make him.
The political cost would be too high.
The Friends and Friends of Sharad Yadav
The Upper House of Parliament has two kinds of leaders. There are the Arun Jaitleys and Manmohan Singhs - articulate, english speaking professionals with a flair for policy matters. They are a part of the political landscape, political parties need them, but they are not mass leaders.
And then, there are those wrought in the crucible of electoral politics. They draw crowds and votes. And those who have run the gauntlet in Bihar tend to be the most consummate politicians.
It was with Jayaprakash Narayan that Sharad Yadav began his political career. He was handpicked by JP for the Lok Sabha in 1974. And through the many splits and realignments of the Janata Party, he has always been essential to Bihar politics. He has been in the legislature, a minister in successive non-Congress governments, the Convener of the NDA.
Like many seasoned political leaders, he has friends and allies across the political spectrum. And he has no permanent enemies. In the 1999 polls, he defeated Laloo Prasad Yadav in a head-to-head contest in Madhepura. And the situation flips over in 2015 - the JD(U) Chairman is now a Laloo ally, and will take on the BJP in the Bihar Assembly elections later this year.
Caste vs Gender
Why then, did such a seasoned Parliamentarian - one who claims allegiance to egalitarian leaders like JP and Ram Manohar Lohia - make such sexist remarks?
This is not the first time Yadav has verged on misogyny in Parliament. In 1997, he said that the Women’s Reservation Bill would lead to parkati (short-haired ) women taking over politics. The idiom is clearly a reference to urban, working women. And when discussing anti-stalking laws, he said “who amongst us has not followed girls.”
The usually assertive women MPs of UP and Bihar - from Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj to Jaya Bachchan and Dimple Yadav - chose to remain silent on Yadav’s derogatory statement.
Only Smriti Irani and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi created a ruckus over his most recent sexist comments. Perhaps because they belong to the Gen Next of India’s politicians. The ‘importance’ of being Sharad Yadav matters less to them.
Many pro-Mandal politicians, Sharad Yadav among them, have issues with the Women’s Reservation Bill. They see it as an insidious way to negate caste-based reservations. But very few of them have made the kind of statements that Yadav has.
Post the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder, issues of gender have come to occupy centre stage for many of us. But that has yet to influence Sharad Yadav’s politics. His politics will stay relevant for as long as caste inequality looms over large parts of India.
Sharad Yadav would never have stood for a castiest remark in Parliament. The fact that so many senior politicians, both men and women, have not held him to his own standards when it comes to gender is telling. They are not willing to pay the political cost of taking on Sharad Yadav.
(With inputs from Monica Sarup)
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