Sid, A Spoilt Kid?

Sid, a spoilt kid ?

If leaders  of all political hues can  air their views  on TV channels  on events  which they never witnessed directly, none can deny the right of a common man to air his views at least through a blog with a hope that lesser views,  though no less pithy, will be read by the public. It is also hoped that this will not be construed as an insult to the worthy elected representatives of the land  and make them haul me to face the  unanimous condemnation of the august house which most of the politicians would never willingly vacate.

The threatening gesture of  Siddharth Mallaya   to the press  on being quizzed about his tweet  a l’affaire Luke for alleged molestation of Zohal Hamid  was seen by all TV viewers. His tweet  alleging that   the latter was all over him that night and thus casting aspersions on her character has forced her to serve a legal notice on him. None knows the truth as yet. However, his impulsive reaction by thus tweeting  leads one to think that he was trying to cover  Luke for his alleged misbehavior. The common public would tend to agree with the TV commentator, on his analysis of Sid, that Sid is  brought up in affluence and he has been taught the delicacies of dealing only with affluent lot of a Deepika, the likes of which are capable of  taking care of themselves and know well how to rebut indecent behavior of the power- and pelf- drunk scions of rich families of the country. He has not been taught to deal with 99% of Indians who do not drink King Fisher beer nor travel by his father’s airline. Those of  lower stature has to resort to legal means to counter such misdemeanors. This American girl has  perhaps the wherewithal to take such an action. What about girls who have neither money nor connections. They have simply to silently bear the atrocities against them. Talking bad of women  is against our culture and tradition. I was surprised to hear  a woman’s reaction to the tweet. She is none other than Renuka Chowdhary, a former Union for welfare of women and child development  who, like a mother mildly rebuking her child for bad behavior and immediately giving it a chocolate when it sulks,  thought it the highest of chastisement when she asked   Sid to take care not to hurt others  while tweeting.  What a consolation for Zohal and all Indian woman suffering such  mal treatment. Woman’s welfare is safe in such hands! I am tempted to remind Renuka of an Indian story of a king when asked to  judge  four criminals  belonging to different social strata for having committed the same crime of murder. The king pronounced his judgment which was imprisonment for three and  death for one. He was quizzed about  this difference in punishment for the same crime. The man judged to die was a Brahmin. As a person belonging to the highest strata in society , he was expected to have full control of his feelings  and also was fully aware of the consequences., while the remaining , not enjoying such a status and lacking the education and culture were less capable of containing their emotions and deserved only a lesser punishment. The former minister could at least have kept silent about this incident. Her mild and  motherly rebuke seemed to  downplay Sid’s condemnable behavior and turn a blind eye  to the misdeeds of  the rich and powerful.

Dr T N Vasudevan