Should we care that some of our politicians have multiple wives, have been secretly caught on tape having sex, or siring illegitimate children they refuse to acknowledge?
When it comes to the sexual dalliances of our politicians, the Indian public and the political class are extremely forgiving. ND Tiwari is still regarded as a veteran Congress leader despite a sex tape and a paternity suit.
Haryana’s Gopal Kanda floated a new political outfit while on bail in an abetment to suicide case. In the 2014 election, he lost the Sirsa seat by a thin margin of 2,938 votes.
And Abhishek Manu Singhvi was reinstated as Congress spokesperson within six months of a sex scandal. Later, he even went on to pontificate about “Indian culture”.
Public Persona vs Private Life
Why is it that political parties, the public and even the media to some extent fail to hold our leaders to a higher moral standard? Or are infidelities in one’s personal life irrelevant in the dispensation of public duties?
Speaking to The Quint, Kiran Bedi says politicians have lost a common enemy since Independence and that has changed our very definition of leadership.
We are not talking about authentic leadership. If you can garner the votes, you are a leader. The concept of leadership now is what serves your purpose.
– Kiran Bedi, Former IPS officer & BJP leader
But Nishtha Gautam at the Observer Research Foundation says that while we may like to see our elected representatives as infallible paragons of virtue, their personal lives are none of our business.
The King With 400 Wives & 4,000 Children
The reason for this liberal acceptance of sexual proclivities is perhaps because of how Indians are socially conditioned, sociologist Deepak Mehta explains.
A charismatic leader, be it Indira Gandhi or Narendra Modi, must be seen as larger than life. One of the measures of being larger than life, at least for men, is sexual potency. You will often hear of accounts where a king had 400 wives and 4,000 children etc. The King may not have actually had that. But it’s a signal of potency
– Deepak Mehta, HoD, Sociology at Shiv Nadar University
What If A Woman Politician Was “Caught”?
Imagine if the tables were to be turned. What if a woman politician found herself to be in the middle of a scandal? She would in all likelihood be crucified in the public mind space. And her career? All but over.
This is because there are different yardsticks for men and women, says Bedi.
With men, we have a ‘chalta hai’ attitude. We live in a male dominated society and we accept the male way of doing things
– Kiran Bedi, Former top cop
Sociologist Mehta says if a woman were to behave in the same way as a man, she would never be able to access political power.
If you look at most of the women politicians in India, they fit in three categories - Kanya (the virgin) Sanyasin (the celibate) and the Widow. All of them have renounced or been forced to renounce their sexuality.
– Deepak Mehta, Sociologist
Even in the US, viewed as more “liberal” than India, a sex scandal does not go down well with “family values” which all candidates try to project, Washington-based senior journalist Seema Sirohi tells The Quint.
Picture of a happily married man or a woman, with kids in tow, is the passport to political success in America. Vast voting sections in the mid-west and rural America are church-going, Bible-loving folks who value a strong family that sticks together.
– Seema Sirohi, Senior journalist specializing in foreign policy
Business As Usual
So it would appear that while women access power through renunciation, men access power by portraying excessive sexuality. And the reason why this virtue is tolerated or extolled in some cases, is perhaps the need to be practical in today’s cut throat political environment.
What glues together a party is political expediency, relationships, networking, utility and worth, not ethics.
It’s not just a fight for position, but for money, networks and contracts. What perhaps helps is that everybody has their hand in the cookie jar. Everybody has a secret that everybody knows and everybody is hiding it.
And ever so rarely, when the veil drops, we snigger, mock, send forwards on WhatsApp, but then turn a blind eye.
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