The short skirt politics

This is not the city we grew up in… The Guwahati that was had only love for everyone. Those who even drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes have showed respect to their elders. Forget molesting a 16-year-old teenage girl, eve teasing was a big deal. The main accused of the last week’s molestation case, Amar Jyoti Kalita aka Bond as he appears on Facebook page, seem to be 33-year-old. Strange! Because in the city I knew, a 33-year-old man wouldn’t even eve tease a 16 year old girl. The incident wasn’t planned, it wasn’t carried out by a bunch of men who knew each other and that’s what is scary. It only reflects a society’s immediate reaction to a mishap. When the Mumbai gets flooded, the city comes together, everyone pitch in, and people help strangers. When a girl gets molested on an upscale street in Guwahati, passerby tried to take advantage, added more to her plight. One molester attracted 20 more to undress her, pull her by her hair and a premier regional TV channel gets its cameraman to film it – a soft porn that gives the TV channel a never-seen TRP boost. Channels managing editor had a reason to capture it, says, without the video, cops would not have able to identify the culprits. True. But why smudge the victim’s face? Why not release the video to the authorities only? Our tribal women can walk freely and fearlessly wearing mekhela wrapped above their chests, our women can welcome spring dancing Bihu in public, unlike a many neighboring states, ours is a state where the groom pays a token gesture to the bride’s family on the wedding day – looks like we changing for the worse? I can see a social engineering that’s driving a society move back – to create a definite ‘us’ and ‘them’. Going back to the half a dozen molesters, who weren’t friends with each other, even the riders who rode by taking advantage of the girl that day, shows the hunger for flesh – not just in those who were involved, but in a society correctly. These hungry souls are all around us; walking, driving, riding. We can still see them. Whom we can’t see are the masterminds behind them. Silly me. Seeing a lot of paradoxes among the news channel with the virgin footage, the minister who indirectly owns the news channel, and the prime molester who also works for the youth congress.