WTF!

Way back in the eighties, there was this song from Desh Premee which went like this:

Jaate hai to Jao, par itna samajh lo,

thodi choodiyan pehen lo, ek ghagra silwalo

Aurat ki hifaazat jo karna paaye,

us mard ko kya kehte hai ye to batlao

Way back then as well, I hated this song and the connotations it carried with it: A woman is this delicate damsel in distress (main abla, main nari... the song goes) who had to be protected by a man; if a man doesn't act accordingly, he is as good (or as bad?) as a woman; he might as well wear bangles and sit at home! But with Amitabh "Mard" Bachchan as the hero, and the fact that this was in the eighties, one was more tolerant to these sentiments; to many it also somehow seemed more acceptable, if not appropriate.

More than twenty years later, one sees this picture, and one's blood boils. The story, of course, is disdainful to all women. Worse, you don't even have to read between the lines. The picture and the story just reveal all that the author feels and thinks: A government (made up of only men if one were to go by the picture) that doesn't act is like a woman (remember the song above?)! Women cannot be tough, competent and efficient leaders; that is a typical characteristic of all men. And if they are not tough, competent and efficient, well sorry, you got to be a woman draped in a sari! And the blurb - "We apologise to all women who may feel the elegant sari is wasted on our administrators" - is, in fact, an apology for an apology.

WTF truly. If this isn't a personal affront to all women, I don't know what is.

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