Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 02 July 2018 | Page 7

BLANKET PROTECTION
A
private car collides
with a taxi in Mumbai.
A mob gathers and passes a
judgment—the taxi driver
is found guilty and soundly
thrashed. He’s later unable
to convince the cops that the
it wasn’t his fault. What can
you do? Maybe more than
you think. Such an incident
three years ago prompted
Jaydeep Ojha and Prashant
Dubey to start Swayam
Seva Sanstha, an NGO that
helps cabbies. Aside from
legal aid, it also provides
financial support for sick
drivers and blankets for the
homeless—and holds regular
‘satsangs’ where cabbies can
exhibit their musical talents
through bhajan singing.
THE HUMAN SHOW
B
EING dragooned into serving as a ­human
shield by the army last year during elec-
tions in Kashmir has been a route to unwel-
come cele­brity for Farooq Ahmad Dar. He’s
been fighting for damages since then, but
seems like he was offe­red quite a different
form of ‘compensation’ by private TV channel
Colors’ reality show Bigg Boss. They offered
him Rs 50 lakh to participate last July, he
claims. He adds that he declined, but the
channel has called his claim ‘speculation’
while refusing to confirm or deny whether
they had made the offer.
THIS TROUBLESOME MONK
S
RI Lanka has no court
of consistory for
Galagodaatte Gnanasara
to app­eal to; the contro-
versial Buddhist monk
has been sentenced to
six months in prison for
his actions two years ago
when he stormed into a
courtroom and intim-
idated activist Sandya
Eknaligoda. The latter
was in court for the case
of her husband, journalist
Prageeth Eknaligoda, who
has been missing for eight
years, with the armed
forces alleged to have had
a role in his disappearance.
Gnanasara, leader of the
hardline Bodu Bala Sena,
threatened Eknaligoda
and called her husband an
“LTTE spy”. He has been
fined a small amount and
ordered to pay Eknaligoda
LKR 50,000 (about Rs
21,200) as compensation.
Jump the Mother Gun
T
HE role a mother ought to play in her child’s life is a
debatable thing. Many mothers the world over have
been burdened with the exclusive responsibility of child
rearing. But decades of the feminist movement have made
the debate go through a sea change.
Imran Khan, it seems, gives a damn for this change. “A
mother has the biggest influence on children...I disagree
with this western concept, this feminist movement; it has
degraded the role of a mother. My mother had the greatest
impact on my life,” blurted Imran in a recent TV interview.
Predictably, the comment went viral in social media and
came under heavy criticism, especially by women.
Sample a tweet: “Feminism has never looked down on
motherhood. Feminists have worked in every country to
create paid leave and laws to protect mothers and safety
nets so that mothers don’t leave work to care for kids.
Educate yourself.”
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
“I disagree with
(PTI) chairman, whose party is
this...feminist
one of the main contenders in
movement; it
the forthcoming parliamentary
has ­degraded
elections in the country, has been
the role of a
at the centre of a series of contro-
versies over the past few months.
mother. My
(Have a look at last week’s Post-
mother had the
card for another episode).
greatest ­impact
The PTI chairman’s remarks
on my life,”
on motherhood also came up for
blurted Imran
criticism in Pakistan’s main-
recently.
stream dailies. Most came out
with commentaries giving Imran
a lesson on both motherhood and feminism.
Mina Malik-Hussain wrote in her column in The Nation,
“It seems only men are deciding who wins this special
medal while at the same time conveniently absolving them
selves of all paternal culpability.”
Giving a concise lesson in feminism basics to Imran, she
added that the rhetoric of mothers as the ultimate grand
influencers of all humanity who should be revered and
idolised is “annoying, exhausting, sentimental, limiting
and patently, completely and entirely untrue.”
Obviously, mothers have played a central role in their
children’s lives, because willy-nilly they are the only paren-
tal figure present to provide care, wrote Malik-Hussain.
“And what gives the Great Leader (Imran) any authority
to make judgments on the virtues of motherhood, particu-
larly in the context of feminism? Is he a mother or is he a
feminist?” she also said.
You don’t need experts to deduce that if Imran continues
to hit his own wicket at such regular intervals, he may be
retired hurt by the time of the coming parliamentary polls.
2 July 2018 OUTLOOK 7