As if the numerous controversies the Congress is battling in recent times are not enough, the party’s MP from Kerala K Sudhakaran has added another one for the party’s troubleshooters to handle after he made offensive remarks against the Suryanelli rape victim, calling her a “prostitute”. And to make matters worse, he has refused to apologise.

On Sunday, while addressing a media gathering in Muscat, Oman, Sudhakaran questioned the victim’s character, saying she did not take advantage of her opportunities to escape. He said the victim had moved around “as a prostitute, making money and accepting gift”.

Obviously, this is not a one-off wherein our netas have indulged in mud-slinging on women, and this MP seems to have learnt all his lessons well. His seniors have led from the front and he is only following suit. In fact, the ‘dabangg’ MP moved a step ahead when he chose to stick to his statement, which has attracted harsh criticism from people both within and outside the Congress.

Sudhakaran’s remarks obviously caught the eyeballs of the opposition party members and this became their chance to play hero and voice their ‘concern’ for the plight of the victim, and women in general.

Thrashing Sudhakaran’s statement, Kerala opposition leader VS Achuthanandan said, “His statement is not befitting of a member of parliament. If he had a girl child would he have dared to make a statement like that?"

That is very kind of you sir but that is like saying one needs to die to be able to comment on death! So what if people don’t have sisters, wives and daughters at home? Can’t we just learn to appreciate the fact that a woman is also a human being and should be respected? Period.

All these futile ideals of respecting the ‘man of the house’ and worshipping him as your guardian angel have been embedded in the societal psyche for ages, thus inculcating a sense of male chauvinism so deep-rooted that it is almost scary.   

India has today become a pot-boiler of issues, with fresh scams being unearthed every day: the ballooning trade and fiscal deficits, nose-diving growth rate, policy implementation going down the uncovered drains, and crime rates refusing to come down. But what is more worrying is the fact that our leaders remain indifferent and have decided to turn a blind eye towards all these issues that have crippled the country. It seems they would rather turn around and slap you to stop all the complaining and count your blessings that you are at their mercies.

Why is it difficult for them to accept things and introspect that, ‘Hey, maybe we are at fault. We need to stop, check, re-check, correct and then take it forward’? In the process, mistakes will be made and everybody will learn.

A situation like this seems farther away even from a distant dream and so the MP need not worry. Meanwhile, the crowds can continue to throng the streets and scream their lungs out, and like every other time we’ll just let this one pass. However, it would be interesting to ponder over the need for more grand muftis to issue fatwas in order to curb the freedom of nonsense.