Decency in public life

Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former Chief Minister of Bihar made a statement that 90% of the men in India go out on dates with other men’s wives and only 2% to 5% of the men prefer to go out with their own wives. I am not sure what 5% to 8% of men do as he left out that detail for us to figure out. He categorically declared that there is nothing wrong in having a girlfriend. He further added that [FONT=&quot]if anyone go to Patna's Eco park it's not only unmarried people who are hanging out together. He further said that If both the man and the woman are adults and their relationship is consensual, there is nothing wrong in having an affair, notwithstanding the marital status of the individuals. According to him, this is their personal choice. Mr. Manjhi made this comment in the context of his own son being caught having an affair with married police woman in August 2014.
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[FONT=&quot]The western civilization is looking up to India to inherit their rich cultural heritage. There are many westerners who spent years of life to learn the ancient Indian culture, study the religions originated in India, and research the social practices to find out how such a classic culture is retained over centuries. Respect for women especially for married women is inherent nature of the Indian culture. Despite recent erosion in value in major metropolitan cities, most men and women still voice their opinion against such practices. Even children were trained from very young age to call every other men as uncle and every other women as aunt only to make sure their parents consider other men and women as brothers and sisters respectively.
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[FONT=&quot]I fail to understand how a political party nominate a person with such arrogance to become a Chief Minister of one of the largest states in India. I am not sure how many women’s liberation moment raised objections to his statement and protested in a meaningful way. Even if they did, he overcame such protests to be nominated as CM of Bihar by a political party insensitive to the opinion of the common public. I am not sure where the culture police force is that used to be active in India for every minute issues that comes out of words or actions of celebrities.
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[FONT=&quot]India is a country that had given two Idikasas to the entire world. In both of them, the wars were conducted to restore the dignity of women and Avatars came into existence only to prove to the world about the consequences one has to face for disgracing women.
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Mahatma Gandhi said: “To call them abala is to condemn the inherent strength of women; in my view it is an insult to them. If we peruse the history we shall come across marvelous instances of bravery shown by women. They not only exhibited their bravery through arms, but by building up their moral courage they developed immense strength. If women resolve to bring glory to the nation, within a few months they can totally change the face of the country because of the spiritual background (of women).”

It is a shame for someone in public life to say something so demeaning about women in general and about the culture of a great nation in particular. It is not enough if he is reprimanded by rejection from politics but he should be taught a lesson by his own family members and friends summarily rejecting him for making such a deplorable statement in public.

Subjective opinion of this magnitude should not be viewed with tolerance and should be severely condemned by every social, political and religious organizations in India. He is legitimatizing the character of his son through a general statement that is disgraceful to both men and women in the entire nation. I am not suggesting that he should be treated like how such offenses are dealt with by ISIS but at least opinions from all walks of life should be expressed strongly against such public statements. The party that continues to keep him as a leader deserves condemnation from the common public.

 

Dear Shanvy,

How naive I am to write about one individual in the politics while so many of them demonstrate indecency in many ways. It is like opening up the Pandora's box. I realize that the choice during elections are made by people by determining who could be the least problematic among the many candidates.

I don't blame you for saying "no cmments" for decency in public life. But, if all of us don't speak up, we will move from bad to worse and somehow we have to keep raising those issues even if our voices are very feeble.

Viswa

 

Dear Kamalji,

Thank you for visiting this post. As a Chief Minister, making a statement endorsing EMA as very common among 90% is taking it too far. His son's affair is his family problem and he needs to deal with it as a father.

Viswa

 

Dear CrayoNess,

You are right in saying that it affects only the family and it is not acceptable anywhere in any culture. How it is related to the respect for women? For that, we need to go back in the history to understand how women were treated by this culture historically and when something was done to destroy the modesty of women, what happened in such situations.

I am not saying the father is responsible for the son's behavior anywhere. But his declaration that 90% of men and women are involved in extra-marital affair in India is taking it too far. One needs to dig deep into that culture to understand how deplorable such statement is.

Viswa