BJP and Congress may use women to explain Rafale deal, but Indian women weren’t even inducted as fighter pilots until 2016 – that is 10 yrs after Pakistan.
Having a difficult time understanding the terms and conditions of your country’s pivotal Rafale defence deal? Don’t worry, women will explain it to you in a language even they can understand!
Other than the slightly worrying fact that India’s two main political parties have enough time and childish inclination to produce what looks like parody infomercials on the Rafale deal, the videos uploaded on their official Twitter handles also have something else worth noticing — women who kind of understand things. And not only that, they seemingly understand the nuances of the Rafale fighter plane agreement. Except, not really.
Trapped in the web of lies on #RafaleDeal? Watch this simplified explanation. pic.twitter.com/57BY6vKrwM
— BJP (@BJP4India) August 13, 2018
The Congress and the BJP’s use of two female actors, albeit in the former’s case an actor-turned-spokesperson, is simple — to prevent the words ‘defence deal’ from automatically conjuring images of heavy-duty artillery, incomprehensible blueprints, and men talking about big boy toys that “you won’t possibly be able to comprehend”.
The Rafale deal, after all, concerns the interests of the entire nation. How will two parties squabbling for power be able to make fun of each other if half the population doesn’t get the joke?
Also read: Everything you wanted to know about Rafale and did not know who to ask
Of course, if you watch the video, it would appear that women’s issues are usually limited to “society annual general meetings”, in which conversations pertaining to “upgrading the locks in our building” take place. For women can only understand the layered complications of high-stakes defence deals when they are filtered through the metaphor of the domestic household. The Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal is explained through a resident’s welfare association budget of Rs 18,000, just as national security becomes a neighbourhood locking system.
Trapped in the web of lies on #RafaleDeal? Watch this “real” explanation.
P.S. To the @BJP4India ‘mitrogen’ is clearly getting to your head. pic.twitter.com/JC9jN2ZCRo
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 14, 2018
But like most things, women who have largely been denied access to military vocabulary can at least celebrate the concession that we are now part of some tokenistic discourse in mainstream politics. The truth is, the women in the videos do kind of know what they’re talking about. If you don’t believe me, here’s a man named Albert Einstein saying the exact same thing: “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
And yet, women continue to be deployed as pretty mouthpieces for petty politics, because after all, that’s what they’re good for. With the Congress’ classist reference to Modi as a “gattar ke gas se chai banane wala chowkidaar“, (a security guard who makes tea from gas from the drain) the videos only further paint a picture of high-society aunties out of touch with the realities of the world.
Also read: Nirmala Sitharaman’s ‘modernisation’ drive must go beyond buying big weapons systems
Not only is a woman’s ‘authority’ on defence automatically questioned by virtue of her gender, but the stereotypical portrayal of these two characters only further weakens our chance to win at a man’s game. I wonder how many people assumed that they were housewives.
On 19 February 2018, Flying Officer Avani Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman fighter pilot to fly solo. The ministry of women and child development tweeted their celebrations by saluting “the braveheart” for “scripting history.” It’s 2018. We need to stop being grateful for finally being given rights that were earlier denied to us.
Proud moment for @MinistryWCD as Fg Offr #AvaniChaturvedi, one of our #FirstLadies, becomes the First Indian Woman to fly a Fighter Aircraft ‘MiG-21 Bison’ solo. We salute the braveheart for scripting history.
Many congratulations to @IAF_MCC. #TouchTheSkyWithGlory pic.twitter.com/EmVkB2sVIE
— Ministry of WCD (@MinistryWCD) February 22, 2018
The BJP and Congress may use women to explain French fighter planes to us, but Indian women weren’t even allowed to become fighter pilots till 2016 – that is 10 years after Pakistan began inducting women into their air force in 2006.
Afghanistan’s first woman fixed-wing air force pilot, Niloofar Rahmani, took to the skies in 2013.
Also read: Avani Chaturvedi becomes India’s first woman fighter pilot in 2018. Why are we clapping?
Chaturvedi was only able to fly solo after a long process, which eventually granted women the right to take up permanent positions in the Army and fly helicopters and transporter planes in the Air Force.
Nirmala Sitharaman is India’s first female defence minister after ex-PM Indira Gandhi, and yet, women are expected to continue speaking through tea and biscuits. The big toys are always reserved for the big boys.
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Women’s knowledge about defence? Hehe. That’s an oxymoron. How many of them actually ever took part in any kind of war? How many of them are serving in conflict zones like Kashmir or Chattisgarh? But they do want fashionable opportunities in the airforce. But that doesn’t make you specialist in defence.
No harm in complex issues being explained in simple language that ordinary citizens can understand. When President Bill Clinton was being impeached, saw an image of Americans in a diner, reading a newspaper. They may have been farmers or truck drivers, he a Rhodes scholar, the most powerful man in the world. While they would not be voting on the impeachment motion itself, they were judging him. That is the bar of trust each democratically elected leader has to clear.