Gruesome Drivel, PN Benjamin and Deccan Herald

Recently, I was forwarded an article titled “Gruesome and escalating violence on women” by one Mr. P N Benjamin in Deccan Herald news paper.

Looking at the title, I could immediately discern it as feminist propaganda garbage. The opening statement read something like – “The recent chilling front page report of the police shielding the accused in a dowry case…”

I was “stuck” by this statement. I do not know which incident this P.N. Benjamin was referring to. But if any objective person looks at the reality on the ground, day in and day out, thousands upon thousands of innocent and defenseless citizens across the length and breadth of our country are being mercilessly arrested, incarcerated, presumed guilty and tormented for endless years based on mostly false complaints registered by disgruntled women.

Not surprised. This is the standard feminist fare – take some isolated case and peddle it as the mainstream, so as to intimidate the police, judiciary and politicians to tow the party line.

Then Benjamin goes on to write –

“One cannot help but be struck by the off-hand way in which generally a young woman’s life and death is summed up, matter-of-factly, without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is as much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patient — tragic certainly, but such things are to be expected.”

In India, at the present moment, a young married woman’s death is anything but un-sensational. Not a day goes by without one coming across a report of some married woman’s death somewhere “sensationally” repackaged as “dowry death”. It does not matter what the true cause of the death is. In the first instant, the entire family of the husband is rounded up and incarcerated. Then, to the eternal shame of our country’s civic credential, these defenseless citizens are presumed guilty as charged and made to fight the deep-pocketed and corrupt prosecution in the courts run by equally corrupt judiciary.  By the time the case is resolved, reams of journalistic garbage would have been written; thousands of rupees of the public monies would have been spent; scores of lives would have been ruined; and quite possibly some innocent persons may even have been jailed, particularly if they were indigent and could not afford the best defense money could buy.

When such a ruckus is created in the society upon the death of a young married woman, how could this charlatan of Benjamin make a claim that young woman’s life and death are paid no attention by the society? Obviously, this is a falsehood. What, then, is the reality that this self-proclaimed champion of women’s rights is trying to obscure?

Let me illustrate by replacing one word in his statement (“man” for “woman”) which then would read as follows – “One cannot help but be struck by the off-hand way in which generally a young man’s life and death is summed up, matter-of-factly, without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is as much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patient — tragic certainly, but such things are to be expected.”

How true! Now, the sentence makes sense; and that is the reality this charlatan is trying to obscure. Every year, 56000 married males end their lives unable to withstand the pressures of domestic violence, social hostility, lack of support and unreasonable expectations placed on their shoulders by the society. The tragic deaths of Pushkar Singhs, Syed Mukdooms are neither sexy enough for the mainstream media,  nor sensational enough for the state prosecutors nor sad enough to move the heartless judiciary. These human beings who were sacrificed at the altar of feminist fraud are the true faceless statistic.

As I read further through this piece of garbage, I could not help but notice this whole rant revolved around the D word (Dowry).  How is it that years after noted and pioneering woman’s rights activist Ms Madhu Purnima Kishwar adequately exposed the politics around dowry (link here), the sundry practitioners of pussy politics like the author of this drivel getting away with converting every woman’s issue into that of Dowry harassment? That too, in the mainstream media!

Could it be that the feminist machinery is feeling the heat as more and more mainstream media and civil society are coming forward to expose the “dowry harassment” blackmail racket? Quite possibly!

Coming back to PN Benjamin, is this pseudo-intellectual dunce really interested in the women’s welfare? If indeed he was, why was there no mention of the plethora of real and more serious problems faced by women in our country? Issues like –

–          deaths in childbirth

–          access to education

–          access to healthcare

–          extreme poverty

–          human trafficking

–          forced prostitution

–          forced marriages

–          extravagant marriages

–          child marriages

No! None of the above serious issues are of major concern for our Private Benjamin. And indeed, none of the above issues are of major concern for most of the loud mouthed feminists of our country. In fact, the bulk of the cases of use (or abuse) of the legislation (dowry related and DV legislation) has been by the middle class women of our country. As a segment, the middle class women of our country would hardly ever face any of the problems mentioned above. They, as a group, are in the best circumstance with regards to education, access to healthcare, and financial security. Disgruntled and brainwashed women from this segment constitute the best foot soldiers for the pursuit of feminist agenda. It is no wonder then that all legislation is targeted to this segment, so that more and more of them misuse the provisions of the legislation and wreak havoc on the society. And do that while playing victim, because they have the wherewithal to execute this scheme properly.

Where do the “Benjamins” of the media fit in the grand feminist scheme? They are nothing but bots strategically placed in mainstream media by the feminist political machinery to poison the public opinion. These dummies have the language skills, but lack the intelligence and honesty required to analyze the intricacies of socio-economic-political issues of our complex society.  However, that doesn’t seem to matter much. They still are making handsome careers peddling garbage, as our Private Benjamin has done in this article.

Tags: 498a, Domestic Violence, dowry, dowry harassment, feminism, feminist fraud, P.N. Benjamin, PN Benjamin