Women: The power of pink

Synopsis: Advertisement campaigns disperse through widespread media networks what every politician or individual seeking fame fears – public ridicule.


The incidents of male political activists assaulting young women in Mangalore’s pubs and public transport vehicles has outraged progressive women’s groups around the country.

Pink campaign

The “Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women” formed spontaneously on 5 February 2009, ballooned its random membership since to close to fifty thousand women and men. The Consortium launched a campaign for an “imaginative” fight back.

The campaign agenda is to:

• Send the Sri Ram Sena some love – in the form of pink chaddis (briefs/panties).
• Photograph and post online pictures of the underwear.
• Do a Pub Bharo (fill the pubs) on Valentine’s Day.
  

The Sena leader initially said he would gift saris in return, but perhaps the sheer numbers required to do so would probably have proved overwhelming!

‘Gandhigiri’

The campaign is reminiscent of the ‘gandhigiri’ (Gandhism) portrayed in the blockbuster Hindi comedy film Lage Raho Munnabhai. Munnabhai is a don of the underworld. But Mahatma Gandhi inspires him. He envisions conversations with ‘Bapu’, as the Father of the Nation is affectionately addressed.

The interactions influence his behaviour profoundly, and his ‘Gandhi’ alter ego convinces him that coercive tactics are ineffective in the long-term. Munna vows to do whatever Gandhi would have done in conflict situations, however hard it may be. Eventually he abandons his natural proclivity to fix problems with fists, following instead the paths of truth and non-violence.

Thence when confronted with the intransigence of corruption in office, Munna resorts to sending flowers to the incumbents until they have a change of heart and mind!

Votes more treasured

The BJP is in power currently in the state of Karnataka. At the national level, this party had lost their mandate to governance earlier, when a single no-confidence vote in Parliament brought down their coalition government before the end of term. Subsequently, they were replaced at the Centre by the present Congress-led union government.

With general elections right around the corner, political parties focus on cleaning up their image. Votes are now far more treasured. They realize that supporting such attempts to impose ‘tradition’ on women in a democracy could hurt electoral chances.

The BJP high command and its state Chief Minister have condemned the attacks and distanced from the local outfit. Severely criticized around the country for their inaction, the state police arrested about 27 activists for the pub attacks, and just before Valentine’s Day, took many more, including the group’s leader, Pramod Mutalik, into preventive custody.

Networking power

Reactions to the assault on women are snowballing. The dairy products company, Amul, has picked up on the issue in its posters, with the telling caption “pink chaddi, yellow buddy”. These advertisement campaigns disperse through widespread media networks what every politician or individual seeking fame fears – public ridicule.

The Consortium has a longer-term goal of getting the message through to political leaders that “beating up women” is not at all an Indian cultural tradition. If oppressed women in corners of the country should realize consequently that they are neither alone nor defenceless in the age of connectivity, such campaigns will have served effective purpose.

Comments/opinions, anyone??

Reference:
Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women