Padma Lakshmi went and did it. She dropped her clothes for American magazine Allure. Four other celebrities joined her in strutting their stuff, but Padma Lakshmi is the one significant for us. Supermodel, actor, cook show host, author but most important, fourth ex-wife of Salman Rushdie.
Even as Rushdie showed off his new arm candy, gorgeous Pia Glenn, 29 years his junior, Padma decided to show off her booty. And why not? The woman has wares to be proud of and she makes no bones about it. Padma tells the magazine that she loves the weight she has put on as it has given her “fuller breasts.” She confesses to sleeping in the buff and being “a very tactile and sensual-leaning person.”
We can just imagine many of our Bollywood female stars straining at the bit as they witness the steady disrobing of every Hollywood icon and the attention it gets them. Kate Winslett had barely worn her clothes after shooting for The Reader when she readily dropped them again for the cover of Vanity Fair in a bid to promote the same movie as well as her other release that month, Revolutionary Road. Not to be left behind, Jennifer Aniston shot for the GQ cover in just a necktie and nothing else in the same month. She was promoting He’s Just Not That Into You.
And to think all our female stars can do to promote their films is pretend an affair with the lead actor or to just keep giving interview after boring interview to media! And all the media can hope to get from them in the name of magazine covers is a smirk or a tried-and-tested come-hither look, smoky eyes seducing the camera or glancing off shoulder!
There are some who have tried to go beyond. Back in 1993 Mamta Kulkarni went bare down till her suggestively unbuttoned jeans for Stardust. The poor girl was smarting for years from the censure she was subjected to once the leering and leching was over. She lashed back at her detractors and matters became worse when she appeared in court in a burqa to avoid photographers. That got her threats from the Islamic community. So whether in bare torso or burqa, she became the favourite whipping girl of one and all…. She was convicted in July 2000.
Another star who dropped clothes for a magazine cover was Pooja Bhatt, who got her naked body spray painted a la Demi Moore. Earlier in 1974 Protima Bedi had streaked down Mumbai roads for Cine Blitz, though that wasn’t a cover shoot.
Milind Soman dropped his clothes to strut around naked on Delhi Ridge for an exclusive cover shoot for Saturday Times with Bharat Sikka in the early 90s. Now we hear Neil Nitin Mukesh has shot in the raw for Jail. Surprisingly a man dropping his clothes doesn’t create all that much a stir.
That’s about it so far as uncovered covers go in Indian media. Watching the disrobing in the West, I’m sure our Bollywood babes are itching to drop their clothes and photographers waiting just as eagerly to take some candid shots. Wonder who will take the lead….?
A love affair gone bad is no reason to charge a man who got a woman pregnant with rape, the Bombay high court has ruled. Justice Sadhna Jadhav acquitted Borivali resident Manesh Kotiyan (39) of rape charges three years after his arrest and subsequent conviction.
“The very fact that the prosecution has admitted in the cross-examination that she had a love affair with the accused and she desired to marry him. In these circumstances, offence underSection 376 of the IPC (rape) would necessarily fail,” said Justice Jadhav ruling that the rape charges against Kotiyan were “unsustainable”.
The court went through the prosecution case and noted that the accused had proposed to the girl. “The complainant is an educated adult person,” said the judge. “She was fully aware of the fact that he (Kotiyan) was attracted to her. She chose to accompany him to Gorai. She also checked into a hotel to celebrate his birthday. She was aware of the consequences,” said the judge.
“She had not cried for help and had not taken her resistance to a logical end. Hence, it would not be justifiable to hold that the consent was obtained by intimidation, force meditated imposition, circumvention surprise or undue influence,” said the judge.
The court, however, upheld Kotiyan’s conviction on charges of cheating as he had failed to disclose to the victim that he was married and had children. Since he has served around three years in prison, the court ordered his release.
“There is no evidence that the accused coerced her and raped her,” said advocate Arfan Sait, who was appointed by the high court legal aid cell to defend Kotiyan. “He had always intended to marry her and had told her he would do so once the divorce proceedings ended.”
The case dates back to March 2010, when the girl who was four months pregnant lodged a case of rape against Kotiyan. The two had met when they were working at a stationery shop in Borivli. In November 2009, they had gone to Gorai to celebrate Kotiyan’s birthday, where according to the prosecution he forced her into having sexual intercourse. A sessions court in 2012 held Kotiyan guilty of rape and sentenced him to seven years rigorous imprisonment. Kotiyan filed an appeal in the HC. “It is clear from her deposition that she had lodged the FIR in a fit of rage,” the HC said.
Despite its colonial bias, the Indian Penal Code enacted in 1861 by the British who ruled us then, is still serving us far better than the entire gamut of post-independence legislation, especially the laws enacted ostensibly for protecting or strengthening women’s rights. But every time a law fails to deliver its promised results, instead of taking a cool headed review, a small but volatile and media savvy coterie of NGO’s starts a hysterical campaign for making the law more stringent.
The government of the day willingly obliges by adding a few draconian provisions to the existing law—increase the term of imprisonment, make the crime non-bailable, shift the burden of proof on the accused and brush aside due process to placate the hysterical NGOs and their allies in the media for the simple reason that it helps deflect attention from its failure in getting the existing laws implemented with honesty.
Since most of these laws are passed as knee jerk reactions their “use-by date” is over even before women for whose benefit the law has been passed get to know of its provisions or intent. But that does not stop zealous reformers from baying for more amendments, more stringent punishments to be added to the much amended law, as they did with laws to combat dowry, domestic violence, obscene portrayal of women in the media, foeticide and so on. They are often enacted even before law makers have had the time to define the crime with clarity and accuracy.
Take the example of anti-rape law. It was amended in 1983 under pressure from women’s rights activists after the rape of young Mathura in a Hyderabad police station. It enhanced the minimum jail term for rape to 7 years with 10 years for custodial rape. In case of death due to brutal rape, there is provision for life imprisonment as well as death sentence. But none of these provisions proved effective in curbing sexual crimes against women which appear to have actually become more rampant and more gruesome. Leave alone curbing incidents of rape in secluded places or in privacy of homes, government machinery has failed to curb even custodial rapes in thanas and hospitals.
Last year the over zealous Women and Child Development Minister, Krishnna Tirath raised the age of consent for consensual sex from 16 to 18—thereby treating a 17 year old male who has consensual sex with another 17 year old as a “rapist”. She was then brimming with confidence that the law would act as a magic wand for persuading or frightening teenage girls from having sex before they turned 18. But this pious measure also failed to produce the desired result.
In the meantime, the police made it merry by harassing young lovers looking for some private lovey-dovey moments in parks or other secluded places. The police also make a kill by implicating men on the basis of motivated, trumped up charges or absolutely absurd allegations of rape under the existing supposedly “lenient” provisions. For example, in recent years there have been a spate of cases of women getting their lovers and/or live-in partners arrested on the charge of “raping them continually for X number of years” by making a false promise of marriage or a film role or a particular job. These men surely deserve condemnation for breach of promise. But to charge them of rape is making a mockery of women who actually suffer gruesome assaults on their bodies.
But for the media expose, we could well have had a case filed by the woman lawyer who was caught on camera with Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleging rape, had he failed to make her a judge of the High Court—a job she demanded in return for sexual favours!
To say that a man is legally obliged to marry a woman or give a promised job to a woman he has had sex with and failure to do so will mean a prison term for 10-20 years is to play with fire. Are we willing to extend the same logic to women and have them arrested and jailed if they change their mind about marrying a man with whom they have had an affair? Can women demand such one sided laws in the name of equality without making themselves objects of disdain?
Predictably, the only people who benefit from such fierce laws are corrupt policemen and unscrupulous lawyers. Just as the police bribe rate goes up for helping criminals in cases of non bailable offences, so also the lawyers’ fee rises astronomically if the offence invites draconian provisions. Genuine victims rarely get the kind of support our police gives to those who have committed crimes against women. Most genuine victims can’t afford to hire lawyers who charge a bomb for arguing their case.
All this would have gone on for ever without any one in the Government losing any sleep if a few gruesome cases of rape in the heart of Delhi had not mesmerized TV channels into making rape into a cause celebre last year. Therefore, in sheer panic the Government appointed a special Commission headed by legal luminaries who too in sheer panic submitted a humongous report in record 30 days’ time and then pressed more panic buttons to demand that their recommendations be turned into an Ordinance in order avoid delays in passing a new rape law. Never mind that the public hearings of the Commission held just 48 hours before they were to submit the voluminous report were a mere formality because the feminists who wanted certain law changes had already supplied all the ammunition to the Commission before it carried out the formality of public hearings.
So now we have a situation where even before there is consensus on whether to call the crime ‘rape’ or “sexual assault”, whether to raise or decrease the age of consent, how to define ‘voyeurism” or “stalking” it has been decided to make it a non bailable offence—meaning the moment a woman makes this charge, police are duty bound to arrest the person and send him to jail because only court can give him bail. It has also been decided in the draft law that the minimum punishment for rape will be raised from 10-years to 20. Now that the BJP has decided to beat the feminists at their own game, it is going to support a “tough” law simply to get one-up on the Congress party!
Since I am actually feeling sorry for the UPA government for having to act under siege, I have a humble suggestion to help it overcome future embarrassments. Along with the new rape law, the UPA government should enact another law that mandates that EVERY woman must at ALL times carry copies of ALL the laws ( along with their numerous amendments) enacted for protection of women on her person. These copies should be duly certified by the area magistrate so that she can wave the appropriate law with utmost confidence about its authenticity at whoever comes to harm her, beat her up, rape her, violate her dignity, and sense of pride as a woman! This could be called the “The Duty to Wave Appropriate Laws before Offenders”. This could be a drunkard husband come with a knife to kill her or break her skull or a gang of sadists come to rape and tear her body apart or a leery boss wanting sexual favours in lieu of allowing her leave when her child is sick or a pervert carrying a can of acid to disfigure her for having dared snub his advances.
Failure to carry any or all of these laws on her person should invite strict action against the woman or at the very least disqualify her for seeking the help of the police in booking the said criminal because failure to wave the law with a confident flourish is indisputable evidence of “contempt and mistrust of government” and ‘lack of trust” in the magical power of the said law. This simple measure will help curb if not crimes against women, it will surely bring a radical decline in the number of women who will walk into police stations to report and register crimes.
After all, a woman who does not feel strengthened by the sheer ferocity of draconian provisions written into law made especially for her protection, needs “consciousness raising” by duly certified feminist NGOs. For this purpose, the Government should allocate a corpus fund of 50,000 crores with 10% additional yearly increase to provide handsome grants in perpetuity to feminists of the correct political persuasion to conduct legal literacy classes, psychiatric counselling and the art of waving laws with speed and flourish whenever they feel endangered. Grants emanating from this may be used for going on global tours to hold workshops, prepare training modules, audio visual material, films and explore all manners of new consciousness raising techniques with the help of best international experts on the subject.
Once government makes high voltage feminists become “partners in woman’s empowerment” they will be able to protect it from disgruntled citizens far better than the government knows how to.
If this too does not work, let us please request the British to come back for a specified period and update all our laws to sit the requirements of a 21st century democracy in India, since we have failed to do the job on our own steam.
Gurgaon is often referred to as the Millennium City of India. Once touted as the City South of Delhi, a clear take on South Delhi, the playground of Delhi’s rich and upwardly mobile, it has, in the past few years, beaten the country’s capital with the pace and quality of its real-estate development. The city is now home to some of the biggest corporate houses and professionals.
It is to cater to this upwardly mobile, with loads of cash to spare, clientele that it also spawned a huge ‘mall’ culture with plenty of opportunities thrown in for shopping, entertainment, fine dining and bars. But that is where the good things end. While the private sector rose to the occasion and delivered, as expected, the local administration has failed – and miserably. The city’s infrastructure is a joke. The roads are a mess. There is nothing called rainwater drainage. Sanitation is non-existent. Power supply is erratic, at best. Whichever way one looks at it, it is ‘ slumdog India’. Despite the city contributing the maximum to Haryana’s coffers, it seems the politician-builder nexus has no long-term vision and is content using the city a milch cow.
In between, there seemed to be some hope when the city was given a municipal corporation and to make things even better, recently a maverick, but proactive gent was given charge of the local body responsible for the upkeep of the urban areas. Sadly though, they too have failed, which I suspect is more due to the nexus mentioned above. That, however, doesn’t absolve the administrators who too have bungled. And the latest diktat of the district administration to ask women to stop working after 8 in the evening is perhaps the most stupid diktat.
It is a diktat that screams: We are useless. We have abdicated our responsibility. We cannot guarantee safety to the residents of our city. We cannot guarantee the workforce its safety. Our police is no good. We admit, this lawlessness is beyond us.
It is a diktat that shows the administration in an Ostrich-like mode. Take the easy way out and instead of trying to tackle the issue head on, ask women employees to stop working 8pm onwards. Brilliant. As someone responded to me on twitter: Does this apply only to women workers or even shoppers? I would add to it. Does this apply to office workers and countless BPOs that dot the city and have hundreds of women working in different shifts? There are even some high-profile women honchos in the city working for large corporates and am sure they keep long hours. Would they be forced to leave by 8 too? And most importantly, does the rapist know if the woman walking out is an office-goer, or a shopper or a BPO employee or a bar employee?
I agree that there is a huge culture issue in the North. And I am not saying this to spark a North-South-West-East debate, please. Rapes happen all over, but when it happens with the alarming frequency as has been happening here, it tells a tale. I have already discussed in the past the huge socio-economic problems that are looming due to this overtly materialistic society. It is impacting a lot of youngsters, especially those whose families sold off their land where these luxury apartments and malls now stand. These youngsters have now blown up all their money but have no fallback option.
Right, but these are the problems that need to be tackled head on. Taking the easy way out by either ignoring them or denying that the issue exists is stupid. But giving diktats such as what the administration has done is even worse. It shows the administration that has thrown its hands up. That seems to convey that women are a problem. Nothing can do more to shake the confidence of the residents of any city than this. It is an order that needs to be revoked.
