OPEN LETTER
Dear fellow MRAs,
For a very long time I have been a skeptic and critic
of the Jan Lokpal Movement or Anna Movement or Aam Aadmi movement. I personally
feel that the first two versions were non-viable on their own. I was right. In
fact 2 years ago I wrote an editorial for a friend's website (which has since
become one of India's most popular online counter-culture youth magazines). You
can find the link below.
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| MRA Pune protesting against the government to rollback IrBM in June 2013. |
In the light of the
recent events and AAP's victory in Delhi, I urge you to reconsider some of our
prospects. While we know that any political party especially AAP will not back
down completely from the feminized and hollow patchwork agenda of "women
empowerment", it is up to us to present our arguments and reasoning to the
AAP because from hereon we know that for Delhi atleast they are a force to
reckon with. They have been elected on the agenda of representing the oppressed
common man, so the least they can do is atleast listen to the reasoning and
argument of the common 'man'.
It will be very
unproductive and unhealthy if we deem Kejriwal and the lot as misandrist and
not meet the party heads without presenting our views to them. In the light of
the false allegation against Dharmendra Koli, this is the right time to strike. Of those of us who have lived in Delhi at some point or another, I think we all agree that Delhi is unsafe for both men and women, and women are
infact more vulnerable there. But how Marital Rape bill, and capital punishment will
help in empowerment is something to be questioned. We have all at some point or
the other have expressed that we as men would also like equal empowerment with
women.
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| Fathers 4 Justice, UK members dressed up as superheroes while protesting in favour of Father's rights in the UK. |
So it would be only
appropriate that members and activists in Delhi atleast hold a meeting with
AAP, explaining our perspective. We have never wanted to take anyone else's
rights, we just want our own! This sort of false empowerment of women is also
teaching them to beg and demand things and choices that aren't necessarily
theirs to make. It affects us men in all the wrong ways. MRAs who have been
harassed and exploited themselves, know this pain.
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| CRISP Bangalore used a similar strategy when Manpreet Bhandari dressed up as Superman protesting in favour of vistitation rights for divorced fathers. |
Once again I urge
activists in Delhi and nearby areas to hold an informal meeting with AAP, because other than gender issues they are raising all those issues that all of
us do have a problem with. Inflation, minimization of corruption, law and
order, education etc. We push for IrBM again and again, but should we not explore this avenue again and again too? We may have our individual opinions and differences in nitty-gritties
over these issues but considering that AAP is the only party in Delhi state
assembly with enough guts to speak against issues BJP and INC will not dare to
speak for the fear of losing their seats, we must atleast put our opinions out
to AAP. This is a party who is now planning to enter the Lok Sabha. One MP can
change the course of history or atleast the way the nation thinks. We have
witnessed it time and time again. For the first time in the history of this
country, issue based politics is taking shape. This is not the politics of
caste, religion, secularism, communalism, blamegame, "bayaanbaazi",
corporate robbery etc.
The Aam Aadmi is truly angry. And in Delhi it has
been proved that if you give us one viable option which is not a choice between
Congress and BJP, UPA and NDA, we will take it! This is an opportune moment. We
should atleast attempt to ride this wave, for our own sake, for a world where
differences between the genders are acknowledged as equality in different
contexts.
Regards,
Rishabh Kumar, 23
Member/Online promoter
Men's Rights Association, Pune
NOTE: This is not the official or collective view of Men's Rights Association, Pune. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity.
-End of Log-
~The RED Indian~
Yeah, it's true that we should not be pessimists. So, nothing wrong in meeting AAP leaders and explaining our plight. But, It is also true that, the left or centre left or left leaning or whatever you call them, if someone believe in leftist ideology, it's pure time waste for us to contact them. It's proved again and again. What ever we say, they simply listen and put the blame on capitalism or class structure and simply ask us to join to destroy the capitalism and abolish the bourgeoisies (classes). That is the only remedy they have. They don't support us because, as per them, women are the oppressed class and men belongs to the oppressors class. But they accept one thing that because of the capitalism, there are some men who suffered in the hands of women but those cases are very rare and need to be treated individually. That's what their pathetic view on men and their rights.
ReplyDeleteIf you are a man and fighting against women (though the issues are legitimate ones) you are a sinner as per them. Because you are against the class theory that they believe in.
Anyway nothing wrong in trying, ALL THE BEST.
Hello Eklavya. Thank you for your response. By now the response has been clear in the MRA community by and large. Due to distrust towards MPs and MLAs (and rightly so) most MRAs are apprehensive towards approaching AAP again. I have been told that AAP has rejected the views of the MRM outright in previous meetings as if the problem did not exist or was marginal. The point however is not about asking them to view things in our favour. The point is to highlight false allegation against Dharmendra Koli and say, "told you so.", so that it sticks with them.
DeleteAs for a leftist approach my response would be a philosophical one. Economic ideologue is often different from a social one and is often confused with a social one. No where is it more true, than Marxism itself. But the idea that Left is the same is essentially an Indian one. They are not the same. In the west intellectuals have made clear differentiation between the two from the very start.
A couple of years ago noted philosopher and psychoanalist Slavoj Zizek came to India Habitat Centre and made fun of Socialism and Communism being clumped together with feminism in India. In fact he made fun of Nivedita Menon while she was sitting right alongside him on the stage Menon is a noted feminazi who likes to spew sexist male hatred on kafila.com every now and then. Menon frowned. The next day she called Zizek sexist by publishing a hate filled weak argument against his work on kafila.com.
I am not a Communist myself, but I am definitely a Socialist. This country has been found on Socialist principles.The greatest heroes of this nation such as Jayprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia were eminent socialists.
Still I feel whether one aligns themselves towards the left of centre, centre, or right of centre is a matter of individual economic choice. But it is contradictory to associate a social ideologue like MRM or Feminism with it. It is like comparing apples and oranges. Personally I think MRM is far more reasonable than Feminism in India. Therefore I am a devoted Socialist MRA. Equality is plural and variable. While it does matter in a larger sense it differs in context for different groups of people.
Imposing the so-called equality is not equality at all. It is compliance and fascist supremacy. This is what Communists and Feminist seek to achieve and have failed time and time again. Because above all things people value their individuality the most.
Just because most Feminazis cannot differentiate between an economic agenda and a social one, just because they clump the Left with Feminism, just because Indian Leftist think they are cool because they have blindly embraced Feminism within their ambit, doesn't mean they own one idea by following another. These ideas are different from one another. And an individual is free to take their pick.