Sena-speak

In their mouthpiece Saamana, the ShivSena has come out with its take on the recent case of rape of a young girl by a drunk policeman in Mumbai. Now, as right bashing is the flavour of the season, there have been many an opinion expressed about how completely wrong the Sena is and so on. I grant that, true to their nature, the Sena has gone overboard by suggesting that the girl’s dress sense was directly responsible for the cop’s actions. Although anything coming from the Sena generally has to be filtered and tempered down anyway, the underlying social comment behind the article cannot and should not be simply disregarded. Flame me as you wish, but I cannot help but agree with the Sena that much of the ‘fashion’ that young India wears today, borders around indecency. Forget pubs or discos, just drop by in to an upscale coffee house outlet near you and I hope you will know what I mean. I have never been to a pub myself (and don’t intend to, either) but I have no illusions as to what I may witness there. I am all for freedom of choice, but with freedom also comes responsibility. There's nothing wrong in following the latest trends, but the idea of doing it just because 'they' do it, and without regard for ideas of acceptability and decency, is what I cannot get to terms with. Imitating the West, unfortunately is restricted only to the glitter rather than the gold.

I am going to do some wishful thinking here by just imagining the situation reversed - there’s growing influence of Indian culture on the teen population in the West. For instance, girls are opting for totally indecent dresses like, salwar-kameez rather than low-waist tights, guys are boozing less, college drop out rates are at an all time low, pre marital sex and teenage pregnancy are on an alarming decline and so on. Most right wing political outfits and social groups view this as a direct attack on their culture and preach restraint to the youth, but are widely criticized for being too backward and restrictive….

Going by the general notions of freedom these days, wouldn’t that be such a pity for them?