The article in The Economist titled ‘How to Damage India’s Reputation’ dated Wednesday March 14, 2015 prompted me to write this piece.
It needs a further study from a wider angle. It talks of BBC’s recent documentary on women – based oppression meted out by ‘mentally – ill’ sections of Indian men, India’s Daughter. In this article, Indian men have generally been described as carrying ‘a repressive and thuggish look’, as if always on the lookout for assaulting women.
I beg to differ from this poorly deciphered view of Indian men as not ALL Indian men are the same. They respect the feminine gender from the bottom of their heart. They are multi – tasking and multi – talented. Apart from their work at office, schools, hospitals, and industries, they are caring sons and husbands to their mothers and wives, responsible father for their kids, loving brothers for their sisters, yet they are viciously, unlawfully and often unknowingly trapped in the hard – to – break shackles of the highly misused Indian Penal Code Law (IPC) of 498A and IPC 125 (Maintenance Act).
This social ill is not getting the required attention that it is supposed to get or being highlighted as other social ills on women. India’s fame and reputation has already been tarnished and tainted beyond repair. The world sees us as a country where poverty, inequality, injustice are rife. The truth of the hour is that like women, Indian men are also equally, if not more, suppressed, oppressed, threatened, cheated, harassed, viciously trapped by utterly greedy and corrupt law enforcement agents and the thin – skinned, peace – impersonating and white – clothed politicians, whose greed for money have still kept the two evils of Indian society – 498A and IPC 125 alive.
However, the time has come for all of us who are sufferers at the hands of these cruel, women – centric sections of the IPC to stand up and fight for our rights and lost pride when we are falsely condemned by the very law that was meant to protect us.
It’s high time that we take the fight to the government so that our coming generations can heave a sigh of relief, for it is in the air, Gods Be, it’s a curse now – a – days to be born as a male child rather than a female child. Very soon parents will think twice before giving birth to a male child. We can soon expect to witness rather awkward not ever heard before incidents of ‘Male Infoeticide’, because parents know that their girl child can be a boon to them as she can without warning change into an unscrupulous lady and start extorting money and harassing their husbands and their in – laws being backed and supported by our stupendous IPC sections – the magnanimous 498A and wilfully conjured IPC 125. Alas! Now the Hunter is being hunted.
Unfortunately, the works of some great Indian men like Dayanand Saraswati to abolish Child Marraige and start Widow Marraige, Vidyasagar’s effort to abolish Sati Dahan have all gone in vain. If they would have predicted that the Indian women would one day turn against the very men who once upon a time had fought it hard for their freedom against the government, they wouldn’t have ever thought of bringing these reforms.
Women are now entering into marriage and within few weeks and even days lodging false complaints against their husbands and in – laws, being counselled by the corrupt judicial system of the country they have turned into legal terrorists who are siphoning out money from their husbands. Stats from Supreme Court say 98.99% are misused cases. Even highly educated women are turning themselves as money hunting sharks backed by the CRPC section of IPC 125 which was ideally instituted for claiming maintenance. 498A being a criminal case is like a two edged sword for men like us who are falsely charged. First they lose their dignity in the society and neighbourhood and second one loses his job as you are being charged under criminal case. As if this is not enough. Backed by the law, the highly educated wife then claims maintenance inspite having a job herself from a jobless husband. When the husband and his family try to defend himself, he is bluntly told to support his wife with manual labour just because she is his married, so called legal wife, a wife who is not even carrying out her moral responsibilities towards her husband. Is not this cruelty and injustice? Without a proper investigation being done, the case goes on and on. Why so? Because right from the peon in court to the high judge and the police, including the defendant husband’s lawyer gets their hands greased by the money extorted from the husband’s family. Then why is it wrong for the western world and European writers to see India as a country where injustice and inequality prevails. Then on what basis can Mr. Swapan Dasgupta, a well known coloumnist close to the Modi government, say foreign opinion (about India) is often distorted by a caricatured ‘Oxfam view’.
In today’s scenario our newly elected PM, Mr. Narendra Modi has vouched for cleaning India from its social as well as physical garbage so that the stench stops reaching the Western World so that India can rebut their views and correct them. Mr. Modi says, ‘Rape is a National Shame’. Then to add to this point, I would also like to say ‘Misuse of 498A and IPC 125 by the deceitful and greedy Indian women is also a National Shame and a cause for concern.’ To drive home my point, 498A and IPC 125 are raping Indian men.
Yes I agree and we all agree that crimes against women are on the rise. Even after the heinous Delhi Nirbhaya rape case, our country has not learnt a lesson. The mentally ill sections of the Indian society still burn their wives for dowry. Every now and then we hear news being aired that minors are getting raped. Yes the laws have got more stringent than before, and we the common well mannered Indian men who still think that marriage is a constitution suffer. I am a sufferer at the hands of this Indian social evil and my only question to our PM is when will our ordeal end? And when will we be able to breathe fresh air without having fear of being falsely condemned by the law? And even if the law gets amended, will we get back our lost dignity and place in the society? If someone from our PM, Mr. Modi’s family suffers a familiar fate, I think the story will get much clearer to him.
Till then, to people like us the suffering Indian men, our country will be like a land of curse and injustice, where poverty and inequality goes hand in hand and corruption and honesty stay far apart from each other. Perhaps the noted American academician and historian, Wendy Doniger’s view of India is a true one – a country where social evils are more important than its subjects!
#CallForGenderNeutrality .....
