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When a humorist becomes a preacher instead of becoming a social critic

Rahul Raj
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When a humorist becomes a preacher instead of becoming a social critic

Back in 90s when Govinda was the prime face of comedy in India, and he was literally hauling the humor scene of India, a new generation of kids was tussling to reinvent other genres of comedy. The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, launched in 2005, entered as a game changer for many unknown faces who were earlier struggling to sell their humor. The show emanated hope and optimism to many suppressed individuals who wanted to voice their opinions, their anger, and their frustration through humor. During this phase, when people with new faces were creating audience to appreciate slapstick and loud humor, Twitter arrived, and with Twitter arrived additional ladders for many of those new generation folks who were bubbling to ooze dark and insult comedy.

This new generation standup comics raised the standard of humor and tolerance in India, they unlocked new channels to convey many serious social concerns with subtility and class, but in the process of carving new paths, many of them started evolving from performers to priests, and then from priests to preachers. Since some of these standup comics, who became the new revolutionary rockstars, started getting compliments for standing against existing institutions, they decided to attack establishments with more and more insult.

It is not that India didn’t have people writing dark satire/comedy in the past. Poets like Dinkar, Parsai, Muktibodh  were publishing sarcasm on the socio-political system in India, long time back in the 70s; books like Raag Darbari, Jeep par Sawar Illian, Bishrampur Ka Sant written to mock the political realities of India. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, released in 1983, is one of the finest dark comedies produced by Bollywood. Nonetheless there is a difference: earlier books/scripts were written with lots of investigations with attacks focused on ideological differences than on personal choices.

Role and involvements of these standups became more complex when apologetic Indian intellectuals and political ideologists who thrive on attacking the Indian cultural values found a symbiosis with these stand up comics. For this new symbiotic system, BJP and RSS were the prime targets for ridicule: statements issued by these parties became targets for criticism. Ancient texts like Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and even literature written in Sanskrit language started getting ridiculed just because BJP/RSS talked about it. Jokes on Hinduism became neoliberal literature, while jokes on other religion became communal tools.

There are two big issues with this evolved system:

– Unlike the satirists of 70s, these standups have gained publicity by mocking everything related to the existing Indian culture, that too without research. Therefore, they motivate people to attack social system, even without knowing what and why to attack

– These standups switch their morality gears according to their convenience. So, while they advocate freedom of speech while delivering sexist, racist, communal jokes, they take a moral stand against right-wing leaders leaving a loose statement. Fundamentally, being a socialist means treating everyone equal, but then they change gears and claim that leaders are different and they should not speak loose statements.

We are funny people.

Javed Akhtar tweets joke involving Narendra Modi’s wife, deletes

OpIndia Staff
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Javed Akhtar tweets joke involving Narendra Modi’s wife, deletes

On Friday night, renowned Bollywood lyricist, Urdu poet and Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar tweeted an image that showed Jashodaben, the estranged wife of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, within minutes, he deleted it.

The image was supposed to be a joke on BJP MP’s Sakshi Maharaj’s statement that Hindu women should produce four kids to counter Muslim population threat.

It showed Union Ministers Uma Bharti and Smriti Irani, along with Jasohdaben, getting “confused” if they should follow Saskhi Maharaj’s suggestion.

The image was re-tweeted by around 100 users before it was deleted by Javed Akhtar.

Deleted tweet by Javed Akhtar
Deleted tweet by Javed Akhtar

While some thought that it was a good joke, many Twitter users were quick to point out that this was unfair to someone like Jashodaben, who is a victim of child marriage.

Furthermore, Jashodaben is no active member of BJP, who could be dragged into such a political cartoon. Many argued that it was in poor taste and not expected from someone like Javed Akhtar.

Maybe Mr. Akhtar realized that the picture was indeed unfair to Jashodaben, and thus he deleted it.

He later claimed that he never intended to tweet the picture in first place and agreed that it was indecent and poor in taste:


The clarification by Javed Akhtar is a bit stupid as he can’t delete someone else’s tweet. Maybe he meant someone sent him a “message” (on say, WhatsApp?) but wrote “tweet” instead? That’s only possible explanation. However, in that case it will be interesting to know who sends him such images. Maybe it is someone connected to West Bengal, as the image has a watermark in Bengali language.

One Bengali connection of Javed Akhtar is Farhan Akhtar, his son, who had earlier helped TMC Youth Wing in 2011. Maybe Farhan and family are still getting some unsolicited “forwards” from TMC youth wing!

Or was it a case of strong distaste for Modi getting the better of Javed Akhtar’s literary tastes?

Whatever be the reason or source of the image, it surely caused a little storm on Twitter.

However, the most intriguing response was from Reham Khan, whom Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan recently married.

She was all smiles after seeing the picture:


Is Congress the B-Team of BJP In Delhi?

Gaurav
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Is Congress the B-Team of BJP In Delhi?

Yesterday Former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit made a very controversial remark. She more than hinted at supporting AAP, in case there was yet another hung assembly after the upcoming Delhi assembly elections. This declaration would have come as a surprise to most since it was too early to make any such unnecessary comment.

Expectedly there were discussions on Twitter, and many people had labelled Congress ans the B Team of AAP. They began claiming that this support of Congress to AAP was a result of a deal being struck between AAP and Congress where AAP would overlook all the corruption of past Congress Governments in Delhi, in exchange for support to form the Government

Arvind Kejriwal, immediately took to Twitter to spin this in his favour and tweeted:


While most people feel this shows some sort of nexus between Congress and AAP, I have other views. If AAP and Congress did indeed have a quid pro quo, why would Congress come and declare its support to AAP even before the elections are announced? In fact in doing so, AAP is the loser in my view, because now it gets tagged with Congress and doubts are being raised on its intentions.

This is why I think this is in fact the handiwork of BJP, Amit Shah to be precise. Let me elaborate. All the central investigative agencies are under BJP. If BJP wishes, they can set all their bloodhounds on any political rival and make him or her bend in whichever direction. Hence I feel Amit Shah, has somehow “convinced” Sheila Dikshit to give this statement.

The motive? BJP benefits two-fold here. Firstly, Congress supporting AAP, immediately revives memories of the 49-day government led by AAP. Most people, even AAP supporters will probably be sad that in the end they had to side with Congress to get into power, which damaged their reputation greatly. Even the average voter of Delhi must remember all the drama that ensued while Congress was in support of AAP.

Secondly, today, Congress is a virtual non-entity in most states. It has been routed in all recent elections. Naturally BJP strategic team has realised that they are not an enemy anymore, but a tool. Congress attaches with it a deeply negative sentiment. And it passes it on to anyone who is seen close to it. BJP is trying to position AAP and Congress as partners, so that any negative baggage Congress has gets naturally passed on to AAP, thereby denting its electoral prospects.

While this is only me theory, One cannot rule this out due to two reasons: 1. Amit Shah has proved to be the best political strategist in India today. 2. Arvind Kejriwal is not foolish enough to repeat the same mistake twice, especially by declaring it way before the elections also.

Mia Khalifa, adult film actress from the Middle East, gets death threat on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Mia Khalifa, adult film actress from the Middle East, gets death threat on Twitter

Pornography is a delicate topic for many societies, and definitely so for conservative societies where even movie actors could be seen as being “loose” in character.

When it comes to a society like the Middle East, which remains pretty religious and conservative, it is bound to give rise to extreme emotions.

However, these emotions got really extreme early this week when a pornstar born in Lebanon started getting death threats.

Mia Khalifa
She is expected to behave and be cultured

Last year, 21-year-old bespectacled Lebanese-American Mia Khalifa was declared no. 1 pornstar by PornHub, and since then she caught the attention of some people on Twitter, who accused her of defaming the Middle Eastern culture through her deeds.

This announcement by PornHub caught the attention of many Beirut-based newspapers, many of which published articles critical of Mia. Soon she became hot topic in the local media, so much so that her parents, living in Lebanon, clarified that they had nothing to do with the career choice of their daughter.

In fact, her family issued a formal statement saying, “We hope that she comes back to her senses as her image does not honor her family or her homeland — Lebanon.”

After the local media discussed her, it was turn of the social media. What started as preachy tweets to her soon turned into violent threats, with one Twitter user posting the following morphed picture of her:


(Discretion advised: this report contains embedded tweets of Mia. Please visit her Twitter profile only when there is privacy, as her profile page contains some NSFW images)

Some warned that her “sins” will make her burn in the hellfire, something Mia confirmed in her own style:


While men were threatening to behead her, some women asked her to commit suicide before she is stoned to death. But she had a smart response ready for them:


There were many other hate tweets and threats of violence that were thrown at her. Most of the times Mia Khalifa just laughed them off, though some well-wishers suggested her to take police protection after satirists at French magazine Charlie Hebdo were massacred.

However, not everyone was threatening her and wishing her death. There were some voices of support too from the Middle East:


Most of these angry and hateful reactions were born out of the fact that she, having been born in the Middle East, was expected to live her life as per the local customs and traditions.

While her being a pornstar itself angered many, many were enraged as she appears wearing hijab – a Muslim headscarf – in one of her videos.

She has defended her action as her personal choice and artistic freedom, but she too is shocked at these extreme reactions.

“What I once boasted to people as being the most Westernized-nation in the Middle East, I now see as devastatingly archaic and oppressed,” she told Washington Post.

It could be recalled that there were a lot of disapproving voices in India too when Sunny Leone became a “mainstream” star. In fact, Sunny Leone is now pretty much a part of mainstream entertainment industry and her transition has been rather smooth – a pleasantly surprising development.

Maybe Lebanon’s movie producers need to step in!

Meanwhile, Mia Khalifa has some suggestion for those who are outraged at her:


This man thinks he’s enemy number 1 of RSS and BJP

OpIndia Staff
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This man thinks he’s enemy number 1 of RSS and BJP

Devu Chodankar, an employee of a Shipping Company in Goa, was arrested by the Goa Police in 2014, under the IT Act, for these comments on Facebook:

“If Modi is elected as PM this election, Christians will lose their identity in South Goa. Mark these words”.

“There is an imminent threat of holocaust as it happened in Gujarat though under the garb of cunning government policies of (Manohar) Parrikar. Save the identity of South Goa. Vote against BJP this election.”

He was soon let off after questioning. But according to Devu, he’s being “harassed” and “spied” upon by BJP/RSS, not in Goa anymore, but even in Vishakhapatnam. And he has “conclusive evidence” in the form of some photographs, to prove his claims. Some of the pics:

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He also claims his Facebook account was hacked into and his Lenovo phone is being “manipulated” because of which he is “facing problem of Internet Connectivity”

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Charlie Hebdo: This is not the time to discuss “limits” of free speech

Rahul Roushan
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Charlie Hebdo: This is not the time to discuss “limits” of free speech

When there were some tweets yesterday that raised questions if the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo should have been “careful” and “respectful” towards the Muslim sentiments, we thought that those were isolated voices.

However, a day after the ghastly terror attacks, more and more similar voices are being raised by different people in the mainstream media.

While questions like “whether absolute free speech is possible” or “should there be a limit to the free speech” have been being debated since ages, OpIndia.com believes that this is hardly the right time to discuss such questions.

It is akin to discussing “should women dress modestly” when a rape has taken place and the rapist claims that he was “provoked” due to the skimpy clothes the woman was wearing.

Any such debate will unwittingly legitimize the medieval and violent ideology that the perpetrator of the crime subscribes to.

Unfortunately, such debates are taking place. For example, look at this article published on Firstpost.com, which explains the “nuances” of why the author, Sandip Roy, is not supporting the campaign #JeSuisCharlie, which was started to show solidarity with Charlie Hebdo.

Je Suis Charlie drawing by Jean Julien
Not everyone is willing to support this movement; there are other priorities for some.

The author declares that the cartoons were indeed offensive, and quotes another view that says that “Their satire was bad, and remains bad. Their satire was racist and remains racist.”

Surely, the author has all the right to say that – free speech after all.

It further says, rather quotes, “The murder of the satirists in question does not prove that their satire was good.”

Indeed, even this point is taken – free speech after all.

But dear Mr. Roy, what we ought to be discussing right now is that not whether the murder of the satirists in question prove that their satire was good, but whether the act of murder proves that the grievances of the murderers were genuine.

The “quality” of cartoons is the last thing we need to discuss at a time when the terrorists, and their apologists, are citing deeds and teachings of Prophet Mohammad, claiming that the act of murdering someone for saying offensive things is sanctioned in Islam.

Let’s keep the political correctness aside. The truth is that even if a cartoonist draws an approving illustration (as opposed to a mocking cartoon) of Prophet Mohammad, chances are very high that he would be accused of blasphemy and there will be calls for beheading him.

Isn’t it the right time to question such beliefs?

How is this belief – that one shouldn’t draw pictures of a particular personality – fundamentally different from a belief like “one shouldn’t eat non-vegetarian food on Tuesdays”? Why should there be satire that mocks only the latter belief?

It is not about particular beliefs. It is about the priority our commentators are assigning – questioning the satire versus questioning the beliefs.

Why are our commentators not debating issues that question and attack the dogmatism of the terrorists, but are instead choosing to debate issues that question and attack editorial tastes and discretion of the magazine?

Do they really think this is the time to discuss limits and boundaries of free speech? If so, the terrorists are nodding in agreement.

India’s SAHEB – Batman or Bait-man

Guest Author
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India’s SAHEB – Batman or Bait-man

Before you read, please note:

  • Resemblance to any characters, living or dead, of Hindu ancestry or extra-terrestrial origin, is purely coincidental.
  • SAHEB stands for Self-Appointed-Hindu-Evangelist-Batman.
  • If you’re a fan of SAHEB, please note that: While reading, your heart will race uncontrollably faster. Your pupils will dilate. You will feel a steady throbbing in your temples from rising blood pressure. Don’t be alarmed. This is normal and expected.
  • If you’re a fan of SAHEB and don’t exhibit above symptoms, you’re advised to consult a physician immediately.
  • This is not journalism. This is mere commentary. The two, unlike what our media likes to believe, are quite different.

There’s a SAHEB in town. You all know who he is. You’ve seen his legendary moves. In his universe, objects accelerate due to gravity at 9.8 PILs per second-squared, TDK is not a Japanese corporation, and all of human life traces its ancestry back to a solitary Virat Hindu male who arose in an East African rift valley 300,000 years ago. He is our not so silent guardian. A watchful protector of self-interest. A self-appointed desi knight.

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against SAHEB, or his ilk, which engages in the sensational to grab eyeballs and earlobes and whatever other body parts they fancy. It takes all types to make up this world. We all have our roles to play in the grand scheme of things. That’s what makes things interesting. I also believe that it is not disrespectful to occasionally examine so-called heroes in the sobering and unforgiving glare of reason and common sense. SAHEB came into the spotlight first as a junior cast member in the anti-Emergency movement, best remembered for his dramatic cameo- surfacing one fine day in the Parliament after going underground. He served briefly as Finance minister in an ill-fated, long forgotten government.

Over the years, he has flitted from one contentious cause to another, from defending Sri Lankan Tamils to turning into their foe, and from baiting RSS to his present day avatar as a champion of Hindutva. When you look at his 40+ years in “public service,” the man has achieved staggeringly little. It’s not like he has been idle either. He has been and is an effective rabble-rouser, an opportunistic, ever-morphing demagogue rescued from obscurity and oblivion by social media. This is not to suggest that he’s “not smart,” or that he’s somehow a “bad guy” or any of those labels we’re quick to bestow and snatch back. He may be smart. He may be a good guy.  He certainly doesn’t appear heroic.

“But for him, the 2G case might have never come to court,” you say. “How many PILs have you, you bloody armchair commentator, filed?” you ask. You see, therein lies the rub. There is a reason that we have two distinctly different words in the language for ‘activities’ and ‘results.’ Activities meant primarily to draw attention to the self (like what I am doing by writing this now), which lead to zero outcomes don’t rank high in my book. They shouldn’t rank high in yours either. Why not judge the man by the number of prominent cases, which have actually been decided and closed? “Are you nuts? How is he to blame if the Indian courts are slow?” you respond. And I say, “This is not about not blaming the dude for anything. This is about pointing out that he hasn’t proved worthy of your loyalty yet.”

There is something logically inconsistent about criticizing Sachin for scoring hundreds but not winning matches, and at the same time, celebrating unworthy chaps who spend more time in concocting acronyms and clever turns of phrases than in accomplishing real things. There is something logically inconsistent about entertaining the wild speculations of one, while condemning those of everyone else. Ramayan would be a lot less interesting if all Shri Ram had done was to return from Lanka after filing a PIL and tweeting a few choice epithets. The punch line in the immortal tale is ‘He took the bad guys out, against all odds. And, he did it the right way.” So, don’t bring up Shri Ram if you can’t handle the Rajya part.

I can see why SAHEB is admired. There are two systems that work in our brain, according to Professor Kahneman who researched the workings of the mind. System 1 is fast, reflexive and unconscious. It helps us make quick decisions. System 2 is slow and introspective. It examines the logical inconsistencies in our beliefs. Evolution has favored the dominance of System 1 in human nature. That makes sense. When faced with a sabre-tooth tiger, those among our ancient Hindu ancestors, who decided quickly to fight or flee, and avoided philosophical introspection, were selected to survive. Evolution has wired us to favor the simple and actionable over the abstract and complex. Often, the simple and actionable is not always right.

SAHEB understands this all too well. He feeds his legions with bite-sized, easy to digest, grossly simplified views of the world, which instantly gratify a deep primal instinct. He has mastered the art of the sound bite. He is a thespian in the public theater. He is a maestro when it comes to masking identities of his targets with acronyms and choosing words so carefully as to never make his outlandish speculations defamatory. He has mastered the art of hit-and-run guerilla warfare. Nothing more. Nothing less. Is that your definition of a hero? You make the call.

Few understand the role of chance better than SAHEB. The man is a human roulette. I can only imagine what a typical day in the life of SAHEB must be. I presume that he loads up his semi-automatic as he sips his filter coffee at the crack of dawn, and then after a brisk walk and shower, dresses up in crisp white “veshti” (dhoti) and a white cotton shirt, and wanders out onto Twitter or into the nearest courtroom, where he fires away robustly and randomly. It should come as no surprise that he manages to inflict flesh wounds on a target every once in a while, an act which earns him the rowdy applause and undying admiration of fans, who are not inclined to view it as statistically inevitable. As the great philosopher, “The Joker,” once said, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just… *do* things.” We’ve got the Joker mixed up with Batman, and I’m not certain if that makes our Gotham better off.

“Fine. He hasn’t achieved much. But..but.. at least, he is doing something, no?” you protest. So we arrive, finally at the mother of all justifications, to the ultimate, fall back “at least he’s doing something” position from which we defend our heroes in this great nation. The real Batman observed, “Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.” Rewarding people’s faith means a lot more than “at least doing something randomly.” It takes a lot, lot more than demagoguery to get there. It takes the stuff real heroes are made of. It might be wise to reserve our admiration for only those who get there.

– a Guest Post by @Waatho

Former Uttar Pradesh minister says he will pay reward to Charlie Hebdo killers

OpIndia Staff
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Former Uttar Pradesh minister says he will pay reward to Charlie Hebdo killers

Yesterday, we showed you some of the most shocking reactions from Social Media, to the horrible Terror attack in France. Today, an offline reaction has outdone all of them. Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, who has been a minister in Uttar Pradesh government during the BSP rule, has said that he will pay 51 crore rupees to those terrorists who killed cartoonists and satirists at French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Qureshi had earlier announced that “reward money” to anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew images Prophet Mohammad. Then, he had got support from Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, who said that “Every Muslim should have similar feelings.”

Dainik Jagran Meerut
When the entire world was mourning the deaths, this former minister was ready to reward the act of murder.

On Wednesday, when terrorists killed the French cartoonists, Yaqoob Qureshi reiterated that if the terrorists approached him to claim the reward money, he will happily hand it over to them.

The Meerut edition of Dainik Bhaskar has reported his remarks today that has attracted criticisms from various quarters.

Qureshi has been known to be in controversies. Earlier he was suspended from BSP after he made offensive remarks against Sikhs. He has been accused of fomenting tensions between Sikhs and Muslims in many areas of Western Uttar Pradesh.

He had also termed Narendra Modi as a “darindaa” (monster) during the Lok Sabha elections. Qureshi was fighting on BSP ticket, but lost.

It is to be seen if the mainstream TV media makes it a topic of debate, or they ignore it as a “fringe” voice while they focus on other kinds of fringe voices.

Shocking “liberal” reactions on the French Terror Attack

OpIndia Staff
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Shocking “liberal” reactions on the French Terror Attack

Indian “liberals” are as predictable as religious bigots. As soon as Islamic terrorists barged into the office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, and killed around a dozen of people, one thought they would shed their predictable behaviour of being an apologist for Islamic terrorists. But one was expecting too much.

Take a look at what they had to say.

Sajid Bhombal is not any celebrity or prominent person as such but is one of the oft-seen faces of Indian Twitter liberal circuit. He was worried about “Hindu Right Wing Orgasm” when Islamists were massacring journalists:

Another liberal tried to shift focus from Islamic terrorists:

Tanmay Bhatt, a stand-up comedian, who should have been unflinchingly standing by those who were massacred for upholding the art of satire, chose to take pot shots at Modi fans instead of denouncing Islamic terrorists:

https://twitter.com/thetanmay/status/552868046620995584

Aseem Chhabra finds dead bodies of murdered people so opportunistically cool that he shamelessly links it to religious conversions:

And then, Sabbah Haji Baji explains that only peace is onus on Islam and Muslims:

The BS (Business Standard, not Bull Shit) journalist Mihir Sharma, a well known apologist of the Congress party and Islamist ideology, was less worried about deaths of fellow journalists but more excited about reactions from “Hindutavavadis”:

Rightly pointed out by Raju Das, Mihir Sharma was so disappointed by outrage on PK that he compares killing with outrage:

The BS journalist got support from a little known but vocal Internet Liberal called Anna Vetticad, was interested in counting dead bodies in communal riots. For her benefit, ISIS has already killed more people than she can count:

Former Tehelka journalist Rana Ayyub too drew parallels between protests against an Ambedkar cartoon and massacre in France. Looks like she erred as her tweet will divide the “Idea of India” community. Protests against Ambedkar cartoons were not organized by any Hindu Right-Wing group, but Dalit groups, who are not considered Hindus by likes of her:

If you can’t respect Islam, you can be killed with condolences. In all other cases of religious outrage, you are a bigot communal:

You can’t take a stand against terrorism, but you have all the freedom to shout that “Terrorism has no religion”

What does “Freedom of Expression” actually mean? Is it so so customizable? And can you see victim blaming?

https://twitter.com/srih2481/status/552825399604822019

Since no “Internet Hindu” is involved, Sagarika Ghose is acting a neutral philosopher now:

While drawing false equivalences between Hindu groups and Islamist terrorists was always expected, “liberals” went a step ahead this time and indulged in victim-blaming.

Some of them raised question whether the magazine “asked for it”! They thought the magazine was responsible for proving the terrorists. They were treading into an area where they almost said, “It’s bad, but we need to debate what the terrorists want us to debate.”

Coming from a cop like Kiran Bedi, who should never indulge in victim blaming, this tweet was quite shocking:

For others, Freedom of expression is valid until Islam is not involved. As soon as Islam is mocked, it becomes an “irrational radical crime”:

Another shocking tweet that almost said that the magazine invited the murders upon themselves. Coming from a person who comes on TV as a “rational” and balanced professional:

The Hindu took no time in becoming an apologist. It also went so far that it blamed the people who are killed:

When will political and religious leaders stop using women as guinea pigs?

Rahul Raj
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When will political and religious leaders stop using women as guinea pigs?

Even after years of numerous social and religious reform movements, women in India keep facing some or the other scorch of patriarchal structures in forms of burqa, purdah, polygamy, dowry, discrimination, etc. Social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy (also known as “The Father of the Indian Renaissance”), Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Mahatma Gandhi, Jyotirao Phule were successful in abolishing social unfairness related to women like sati, child marriage, widow discrimination, but still, it will take us a few more decades to remove the pride of inequality from our social DNA.

When Sakshi Maharaj made this bizarre comment – “all Hindu women in the country must produce four children to protect the religion”, he actually said much more than just fantasizing himself as a “protector” of Hindu religion. The postulation that a woman should have “n” number of kids states how these social and political leaders indirectly objectify women as children producing machines. A leader of such political stature impacts many people and any absurd statement like this statement have a long influence on the society. While the government is putting lots of emphasis on women empowerment, women education and women equality, people like Sakshi Maharaj attenuates the overall efforts and gives the opposition and social critics an easy window to drill their foundation.

The power game to establish religious supremacy is dragging the social reformation in an opposite direction. On 5th January 2015, Asaduddin Owaisi, head of the MIM said, “Everyone is born a Muslim, and then he is converted to other religions. Ghar wapasi is for these people to return to Islam”. In recent times, some of the BJP ministers have also declared priority of “Hindu Nation” over education and development. Most of these statements are not thoughtful, but are irrational responses to statements made by conflicting communities, political parties and religions.

The statement made by Sakshi Maharaj will give opportunities to many Muslim and Hindu leaders to further preach “production of child”. Between the justifications and arguments like “if Hindus can have, why can’t we have or If Muslims are not questioned, why are we questioned”, women are objectified as just another tool to fulfil the goals of men.

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