One would have expected Tirath Singh Rawat, the newly appointed Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, to be worried about the most pressing problems of the state. Governance seems to be suboptimal—the reason his predecessor, Trivendra Singh Rawat, was removed from the top office. The state’s economy, heavily dependent on tourism, is suffering because of the restrictions triggered by the coronavirus and the ensuing lockdown. But Tirath Singh Rawat seems more concerned about the prevalence of “ripped jeans”, especially the ones worn by women.
Perhaps he wants to indicate to the saffron commissars that he is no less sanskari than any other Bharatiya Janata Party leader. In the Sangh family, mouthing some obscurantist nonsense—e.g., there was internet at the time of the Mahabharata and women should produce sanskari kids only—seems to have become a rite of passage, a passport to success. Hence Rawat’s reprehensible remarks about women’s choice of clothes.
“Kaynchi se sanskaar (culture by scissors)! Showing bare knees, wearing ripped denim and looking like rich kids—these are the values being given now. Where is this coming from, if not at home? What is the fault of teachers or schools? Where am I taking my son, showing his knees and in tattered jeans? Girls are no less, showing their knees. Is this good,” he said at a workshop that was organized by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights recently in Dehradun.
The Chief Minister was shocked to see a woman, who runs a non-governmental organization or NGO, wearing ripped jeans: “If this kind of woman goes out in society to meet people and solve their problems, what kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids? It all starts at home. What we do, our kids follow. A child who is taught the right culture at home, no matter how modern he becomes, will never fail in life,” he said.
He and his ilk are ill at ease with modernity, so they have little regard for such ideas as reason and individual liberty. It doesn’t occur to these people that free citizens, including women, have the right to wear anything they feel like; they should not be smothered with a clutch of prescriptions and proscriptions. Sanskari politicians like Rawat, however, are focused on such things only—that is, everything that government should not be doing.
Concomitantly, they are not so keen on what needs to be done urgently. There is a great deal that Rawat, as the new Chief Minister, can do to boost the economy of the state, improve the lot of people, and thus help himself and his own party in the oncoming election.
Governance is in a mess; the Chamoli disaster reportedly underlines this fact. More than 85% of districts in Uttarakhand are hot spots of extreme floods and associated weather events, according to an analysis by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). CEEW programme lead Abinash Mohanty recently said, “The recent devastating flash flood in Uttarakhand is further proof that the climate crisis can no longer be ignored. In the last 20 years, Uttarakhand has lost more than 50,000 hectares of forest cover, leading to micro climatic changes in the region. This, in turn, has triggered a rise in extreme climate events in the state. A focus on land use-based forest restoration could not only reverse the climate imbalance but also help promote sustainable tourism in the state. Equally important would be climate proofing of infrastructure, investments, and policies. This is no more an option, rather a national imperative to tackle such extreme events and ensure minimal loss and damage.”
Environmental degradation is not the only problem plaguing Uttarakhand. Its economy depends quite a bit on tourism, and this is one sector that has suffered everywhere grievously because of the coronavirus and the consequent lockdown.
But what bothers Tirath Rawat are ripped jeans, wounded sanskars, and wayward women—wayward from his perspective. Evidently, any woman not wearing saree and covering herself as much as possible—almost like a Muslim woman in a burqa—is unacceptable.
His remarks attracted a lot of criticism from not just politicians but also activists and celebrities. But he reportedly sticks to his views—and he enjoys support from many people, including his wife, Rashmi Tyagi, who claimed that Rawat’s remark was “blown out of context” and “wrongly interpreted”.
Some people in India are incorrigibly sanskari.
Ravi Shanker Kapoor is a freelance journalist