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Jayanthi Natarajan or Sujatha Singh: She won't go quietly

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Kaveree Bamzai
Kaveree BamzaiFeb 01, 2015 | 18:13

Jayanthi Natarajan or Sujatha Singh: She won't go quietly

For a long time, women in public life in India were meant to be seen, not heard. If they were heard, it was only according to certain predetermined specifications: the angry mother goddess, which Indira Gandhi did very well, once she got over her goongi gudia phase; the devoted bahu, an art form perfected by Sushma Swaraj and being subverted by Smriti Irani; and the sanyasin, epitomised by Uma Bharti, who now has several clones in the marketplace of politics who wish to usurp her throne.

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Everyone else is supposed to do their time in the public eye, raise no hackles or eyebrows, and demit office silently when shown the door. Perhaps it is because the most powerful woman politician in recent times, Sonia Gandhi, has elevated silence to the ultimate management tool. Her silence is the most dangerous weapon of all - better is her dressing down, as one senior Tamil Nadu MP told me once. He got a half-hour rap on his knuckles on the phone from Sonia from which he is yet to recover. But at least he got a tongue lashing. Imagine Jayanthi Natarajan's plight. An old courtier, who was by Rajiv Gandhi's side on that fateful night in Sriperumbudur, she understands that when Sonia Gandhi doesn't speak to you, there is no turning back in the relationship.

But having tolerated it for over a year, clearly a seething Jayanthi decided enough was enough. Even Janardan Dwivedi was asked for an explanation for speaking seemingly out of turn--for over a year, Jayanthi was not given an audience by either Sonia or Rahul. The days when durbaris would swallow their pride and wait for their luck to turn, even without portfolio, are gone. When things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. WB Yeats knew something. With Rahul Gandhi at the helm of a party that appears to be sinking, old courtiers do not want to suffer any more.

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No-one, man or woman, wants to go gently into the good night. Look at Sujatha Singh. Unlike AP Venkateswaran who was publicly humiliated and virtually dismissed by Rajiv Gandhi in the presence of a crowd, Singh chose to quit rather than walk quietly into the sunset with a UPSC sinecure. Like Jayanthi, no one told her what she had done that was wrong. Yet she was asked to go, or as the new parlance goes, her services were curtailed, and her reputation was maligned, her record tarnished. When Veena Sikri was passed over for promotion as foreign secretary, she sought premature retirement and moved the CIC under the RTI Act seeking information on the appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon. She also complained of gender bias. No such thing for Singh--she has walked off, demanding nothing but that the record be set straight.

There is a new take it or leave attitude in the air - Kiran Bedi, who was clearly not given adequate preparation time before being plunged into the hurly burly of the Delhi election and who clearly suffers from verbal laxity, has already indicated that if she loses, she will be quite happy to go back to speaking at Oxford and Harvard, while remaining a member of the BJP. Of course if Kumar Vishwas insists on being obnoxious, they will not be above exploiting the situation to show up their opponents. Perhaps she has learnt her lesson--blaming the old boy network for being passed over for promotion as commissioner of police was not one of her finest moments.

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Jayanthi Natarajan, Sujatha Singh or Kiran Bedi - these women are not playing the gender card. They are playing the professional card. Whether a politician/lawyer, a diplomat, or a social activist, they are saying, we are here because we deserve to be, not because of a quota or a whim. We better get used to that.

Last updated: February 01, 2015 | 18:13
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