Hindutva Peddlers Want Women Locked Up in Chains a la Saudi Arabia

From: The Times of India

RSS, BJP lock horns over women, marriage
TNN | Jan 7, 2013, 03.49 AM IST

INDORE/BHOPAL: Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief Mohanrao Bhagwat kicked up a fresh ruckus saying marriage is a contract between a man and a woman, and lasts as long as woman honours it. He then said for marriage to work, wives must look after household chores.

"Marriage is successful only when wife looks after the household and husband takes care of the earning. This system ensures order in society," Bhagwat said at RSS's 'ekatrikaran' or gathering, late on Saturday. But, as if this wasn't patriarchal enough, out came another gem from 80-year-old Madhya Pradesh minister Babulal Gaur, who said it wasn't appropriate to describe marriage as a contract in India, where husbands for centuries have been revered as 'parmeshwar (god)' by wives.

Implicit in Gaur's criticism of Bhagwat was that a contract can take place only between equals and not between gods and mere mortals. All this coming within days of Bhagwat's remark that rapes take place in west-influenced urban India and not rural Bharat, the latest display of competitive chauvinism within the Sangh parivar is bound to leave even some BJP supporters cringing.

Bhagwat, who was in Indore for a day, said, "The husband and wife are contractually bound under which the husband wants the woman to look after his house in order to take care of her needs and safety. Till the time the wife follows the contract, the husband stays with her. If she violates the contract, he can walk out."

Speaking at another gathering on Sunday, Bhagwat said that the country was plagued by internal and external problems, and that "Hindutva offers solutions to the burning problems. Although everyone was aware of the problems, there was no collective effort to address them." A collective effort without departing from India's age-old tradition is the panacea for all the problems, he said.

Apart from senior BJP leaders Sumitra Mahajan and industries minister Kailash Vijayavargiya, almost a lakh of RSS volunteers and workers were present.

Meanwhile, Gaur explained further, "Traditionally in this country, a woman considered her husband god. That status may have changed in modern times but what is good in our society should be kept that way. A woman gets married to a man thinking it to be a life-long commitment. Marriages in India are considered a bond that goes beyond one life. We call it 'saat jannmo ka bandhan (an attachment for seven lives)."