By Umika Sharma:
A big round of applause for our Khap Panchayat leaders. Let us all bow down to their amazing logic. Perverted mentality and the drawbacks of our social system are not responsible for the increasing number of rapes in Haryana. Then who is the main culprit? Let me answer that question for you my friends, it is chowmein!
That is definitely not my view, it is the view of Jitender Chhatar, a resident of Jind’s Chhatar village and thua khap panchayat leader, who argues that junk food is responsible for the recent rise in rapes in Haryana. When we beg him for a so-called logical explanation, he obliges us and answers that spicy junk food creates a hormonal imbalance and instigates boys to indulge in such acts. He further explains that the western movies and magazines are to be blamed for all of this. And here we were thinking that the drawbacks of our social system where women are treated as mere objects are responsible for this. Silly us.
This is not the first instance of the Khap leaders sharing their wisdom with us. A few days ago they had come up with the proposition that the marriageable age for girls should be lowered to sixteen years to curb the ever-increasing instances of rape. A few weeks before this they had come up with the noble idea of banning the use of mobile phones because it leads to their girls going astray. The evil mobile phones have been held responsible for the girls eloping. All hail our leader’s statements and logics, they cannot be compared!
Any normal person would come under severe shock after reading such statements and their poor common sense will probably end up committing suicide. What I fail to understand here is why these Khap leaders refuse to recognize that they are facing some of the most severe social problems and instead of trying to apply normal prudence in solving them, they come up with the wildest of ideas to justify all their acts. Haryana has one of the worst sex ratios in our country and the latest rise in rape cases is an after-effect of the same. Another implication of this can be that due to the clear dearth of girls in the society, the boys are not properly taught how to behave around girls. For them, girls are mere objects to meet their lust. The solution here is not about banning junk food or lowering the marriageable age, instead there should be more emphasis on educating these young minds and teaching them how to respect the fairer sex.
Another very relevant topic here can be about the attitude of our big political leaders towards such irresponsible statements of the Khap leaders. The fear of not losing the votes of the Khaps prevents our national leaders from condemning such logics. Neither the ruling party nor the opposition ever dares to say anything against the Khaps. They just close their eyes and ears to such things and prefer to be mute spectators. It is very sad that instead of trying to bring a change in the society our leaders are more concerned about being in power. On the contrary these parties end up supporting the Khap leaders. They are considered to be the wise men here.
The intellectual level of these Khap leaders is beyond comparison and there is no point debating on this any further. If we continue in this fashion then that day is not far when these brilliant people will climb the stairs of politics and reach the top where they will enlighten us even more with their logic. Hail the wise men! Somehow, even the sheer thought of that happening sends shivers down my spine.