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21 August 2024 at 3:50:16 pm

Patriarchy Politics

Rahul Gandhi’s latest clarion call to “smash patriarchy” is less a revolutionary manifesto than yet another of the Congress scion’s revealing exercises in political condescension. It presumes that Indian women need to be told what their liberation should look like and that the prescribed route leads straight to Rahul Gandhi’s politics. India has spent decades moving from treating women as dependants to recognising them as citizens and political actors in their own right. Yet Gandhi’s...

Patriarchy Politics

Rahul Gandhi’s latest clarion call to “smash patriarchy” is less a revolutionary manifesto than yet another of the Congress scion’s revealing exercises in political condescension. It presumes that Indian women need to be told what their liberation should look like and that the prescribed route leads straight to Rahul Gandhi’s politics. India has spent decades moving from treating women as dependants to recognising them as citizens and political actors in their own right. Yet Gandhi’s formulation typically thrusts some 70 crore Indian women into a tired ideological straitjacket which essentially says that patriarchy is the cage whose doctrine is supplied by the Manusmriti while its politics is supplied by the RSS-BJP supplies the politics. The real question is why Rahul Gandhi’s crusade against patriarchy so often seems to begin with Hindu civilisation and end before it reaches the uncomfortable terrain of minority religious orthodoxy. If patriarchy is a universal evil, why is its vocabulary deployed so relentlessly against Hindu customs, texts and institutions, while political sensitivities are invoked whenever criticism might offend a minority constituency? Furthermore, an Indian woman can reject patriarchy and remain deeply religious. She can be fiercely independent and politically conservative. She can reject the Manusmriti, admire it, ignore it or regard it as irrelevant to her life. She can disagree with Rahul Gandhi without being backward, oppressed or insufficiently liberated. The whole point of agency is that Indian women are entitled to reach their own conclusions. Rahul Gandhi’s feminism becomes remarkably selective when it encounters politically inconvenient constituencies. The Congress opposed the government’s legislation against instant triple talaq instead of making Muslim women’s autonomy the overriding principle. The Shah Bano episode remains an indelible reminder of what happens when the politics of appeasement overwhelms the politics of women’s rights. If patriarchy is truly the enemy, it cannot be condemned only when it can be conveniently attached to Hindu texts, Hindu traditions or political opponents. What about coercion justified in the name of religion? What about practices that deny women autonomy? A feminism that refuses to confront those questions is political selectivity dressed up as emancipation. Gandhi lectures India about dismantling entrenched hierarchies while remaining the product and beneficiary of perhaps India’s most enduring political dynasty. Her sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, despite possessing an independent political identity, had spent years politically subordinate to her brother. After repeated electoral failures, perhaps the Congress heir should pause before instructing Indian women about agency. They do not need a dynastic politician to explain freedom to them. They have been exercising it for decades in their homes, professions, communities, politics and ballot boxes. The greatest insult to women is the assumption that they are incapable of thinking beyond somebody else’s ideological script. Indian women neither need Rahul Gandhi to define their liberation nor tell them whom liberation requires them to vote for.

India working on logistics of Tahawwur Rana's extradition

  • PTI
  • Feb 14, 2025
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 18, 2025

Tahawwur Rana

Washington: India is working on the logistics of Tahawwur Rana's surrender and extradition from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said, as President Donald Trump announced that his administration has given the go-ahead to extradite the 26/11 terror attack accused “to face justice".

“This is an issue on which the US authorities have taken very clear decisions. I think you've seen the President announce it himself from the White House podium" the decision of the US to extradite Rana, Misri said at a press conference here on Thursday.


During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.


In response to a question by PTI on the timeframe by when Rana will be extradited to India, Misri said: "We are working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue.”


The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister's visit to the US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021," the joint statement said.


“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved," it said.


The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement added.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Speaking at the joint press meet, Trump said "Today I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and very evil people of the world, and having to do with the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, to face justice in India. So, he is going back to India to face justice."


The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.


India last month said it was working with American authorities for the early extradition of Rana.


"The US Supreme Court on January 21 declined to hear a petition from the accused. We are now working with the US side on procedural issues for early extradition to India of the accused in the Mumbai terror attack," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.


In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

-PTI

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