Saritha Rai - No place for women? Anitha, Ramya and a shared story
Politics is a vicious place for women, even in one of India's more progressive states.
In Karnataka, the by-elections to two prominent Lok Sabha seats are attracting a great deal of attention. Some see the election outcome as an early approval rating (or not) for the 100-day-old regime of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his new Congress government. Others note the informal, unusual alliance forged against Siddaramaiah by the Janata Dal (S), the BJP and B.S. Yeddyurappa's KJP, three separate political entities which had stood divided and got routed as recently as three months ago in the Karnataka assembly elections.
Polling finished earlier this week and results are due this weekend. In both constituencies, it is a straight fight between the Congress and the JD(S), a sign of shifting political affinities even as the crucial 2014 general election looms. More compelling, however, is the underlying story about the two prominent women fighting the elections. Despite their high-profile status, the campaign has demonstrated that politics is no walk in the park for women, even in one of India's more progressive states, Karnataka. That might explain why the 224-member state legislative assembly has only five women MLAs. A sole woman has been elected to Parliament from among the state's 28 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Contesting the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency for the JD(S) is Anitha Kumaraswamy, former MLA, whose political qualifications are uncharitably dismissed as "wife and daughter-in-law". Indeed, Kumaraswamy is the wife of JD(S) leader and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, the political heir to former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda. The Lok Sabha seat was vacated by her husband after he contested and won the recent assembly election. In Bangalore Rural, Kumaraswamy is pitted against the Congress's D.K. Suresh, an election first-timer and brother of S.M. Krishna's protégé, D.K. Shivakumar. In the neighbouring Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress candidate is Ramya, the star of a string of hit Kannada films who, rumour has it, is the highest-paid heroine in Sandalwood. Her opponent is the JD(S)'s C.S. Puttaraju.
Both women have been viciously targeted because of their gender. Each party dismissively suggested that the other's candidate cannot win an election on her own steam. "Anitha Kumaraswamy is a former chief minister's wife and a former prime minister's daughter-in-law who has never opened her mouth on any issue," said Shivakumar, a Congress MLA. "Poor lady, the only thing she did through her entire campaign was to ask for votes with folded hands," he said.
Her own husband, H.D. Kumaraswamy, too, unwittingly implied that she is politically insignificant. "She was chosen after party workers told my father that it is very difficult to win this election unless somebody from the family contests," the former chief minister told this column. She was looking after their son and "maintaining the family", he said.
There is very little discussion about Anitha Kumaraswamy's past stint in politics — she has won a previous assembly election and lost the recent one. Rather, the chatter is around the television station she runs, her nearly Rs 200 crore net worth, and the huge loans she has advanced to her husband, as per records filed with the Election Commission.
During this week's by-election, the turnout at the polling booths was poor. If elected, the two women will be "short-term MPs", whose stint in Delhi will be between six to eight months, depending on when the Lok Sabha elections are called. Many speculate that this may be the precise reason the parties fielded the women. During the course of the campaign, Ramya has been subjected to a ferocious personal attack. At an election rally in Mandya, a former MLA of the JD(S), M. Srinivas, questioned her paternity and told voters that the actor was a "fatherless test tube baby". "Who is her father? Voters should not elect a test tube baby who does not know her father's name, caste or birthplace." Srinivas said that Ramya's affidavit to the EC did not contain her father's name and caste. But as personal attacks go, this certainly was a new low.
Surprisingly, it was Anitha Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) who sprang to Congress candidate Ramya's defence and condemned the attack. It is not easy for women to be in politics as they have to withstand character assassination, she said. "What happened with her parents is an old story, how is she responsible? It is a vicious world," she was quoted as telling a local newspaper.
