Political Slander: More vulgar the better! - Central Chronicle

Much ado about nothing! That's how I look at the big hullaballoo over UPCC President Rita Bahugana Joshi's below-the-belt crude and slanderous remarks made against arch-rival BSP's UP Chief Minister Mayawati. What's new? Aren't we accustomed to gutter-sniping, sleazy and vitriolic tu-tu-mein-mein between political opponents and parties? Of dirty linen being increasingly washed in public. Serenaded by a frenzied audience's seetees galore. More vulgar the better, dil maange more! It all started with Joshi's comment at a Party meet in Moradabad, "The DGP gave Rs 25,000 to a rape victim recently, we should throw that money on Mayawati's face and tell her that if she is raped then we are ready to give Rs 1 crore as compensation."  Predictably all hell broke loose. Within hours Joshi's house and cars were burned down by BSP's workers and jailed for 14 days under the stringent SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, for her alleged objectionable and insulting remarks.

Forklift Oil Tank manufacturing facility.

True, Rita has no business to incite the crowds. No matter that she may have been provoked by Mayawati's words and actions. Also true, that her comment may have been meant to score brownie points. But it took on casteist overtones against the backdrop of an emerging bitter battle between the Congress and the BSP, following the Congress's resurgence in the Lok Sabha poll in this electorally crucial State. Leaving Mayawati rattled by the prospect of her core vote base shrinking further. Some may shrug it off as part and parcel of political discourse. Not a few might dismiss it as Mayawati being paid back in the same coin. Recall January 2007, when she used almost exactly the same words, that the nieces of bête noire Mulayam Singh could be given monetary compensation if they were raped. Not a few might lament a decline in political diatribe and aver that the battle should be fought on issues and not personalities. Even justify it by asserting that two wrongs don't make a right.

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