Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s ‘women in shorts’ remark some weeks ago drew an instant and aggressive response from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Taking up the cudgels on behalf of their party, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani slammed Rahul for being crude and shallow, and went on to list the names of women occupying top government positions at the central and state levels. Though the controversy has petered out since, a few niggles remain.
Between his own provocative choice of words and the BJP’s selective and indignant reaction to his statement, a larger point Rahul was alluding to was lost: That Hindutva struggles to view women as individuals with agency.
While the point about Hindutva’s attitude to women is not tough to swallow, a second point that Rahul made – that women were more visible in the Congress – is open to question, and has surprisingly gone uncommented upon.
Virtual Leaders Vs Real World Leaders
At the moment, women are hardly visible in the Congress’ top echelons. Of course, there are several feisty and articulate female voices representing the party on social media and television studios, but that scarcely makes up for the shortage of female leaders with real world (‘offline’) profile and heft.
Sonia Gandhi has become increasingly selective in her public appearances; years of dithering over debut timing – and prickly references to dynasty and Robert Vadra’s business dealings – have blunted the enthusiasm with which Priyanka Vadra’s foray into the mainstream was awaited; and, other top-of-the-mind names are either not as active as they once were or carry influence only in select pockets.
In contrast, the BJP has several recognisable female names in its front ranks. Their projection may not always owe to an enlightened worldview and the limelight they enjoy may owe much to the positions they occupy, but the fact of the matter is that the female leadership deficit is more visible within the Congress at this juncture.
Addressing Deficit With Eye on 2019
It is a deficit the Congress would do well to address. Women comprise nearly half the electorate, are keen voters (the gender gap in voter turnout has reduced over time and is now negligible), and studies show that they have tended to be less enthusiastic about the BJP compared to menfolk.
Plus, women have disproportionately borne the fallouts of Modi sarkar’s deprivatory economic policies and various other failures, and have more to lose compared to men in the illiberal climate Hindutva actors have precipitated.
Conjuring a leadership capable and credible enough to engage women in the spirit of sisterhood, however, is not an easy task, particularly if it has to be done with an eye on 2019. Spotting spunky voices from the party ranks and strategically positioning them in the public space will help, but that alone may not be enough within the time at hand.
Interestingly, an awareness of the above constraint might prove a blessing in disguise for the Congress. It could nudge the party to craft a separate, sincere and imaginative manifesto for a constituency that is large and politically-invested but, homilies aside, has rarely found its concerns and aspirations foregrounded in political discourse.
Macro-, meso- and micro-level dialogues could inform this manifesto. One can imagine cynics saying how such an exercise will end up re-bottling old wine.
That arises from:
- (a) a non-appreciation of the unique issues that women face as home makers, workers, girls, adolescents, single parents, etc.
- (b) a flawed understanding that women’s welfare is subsumed under family or community welfare;
- (c) a mistaken belief that existing protections, entitlements and schemes have ‘pampered’ women enough.
The truth is that there remain gaps in terms of both the scope and working of protections, entitlements and schemes aimed at women, and a systematic nation-wide politically-driven exercise could be an opportunity to identify priority actions embedded in a frame of empowerment and respect.
The fresh and appealing narrative that emerges would not only elevate the level of political engagement on women’s (and larger development) issues, but could be just the ammunition that Congresswomen (and Congressmen) need to capture wider mindspace.
(Manish Dubey is a policy analyst and crime fiction writer and can be contacted@ManishDubey1972 on Twitter. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)