Woman MLA Bima Bharati battered by husband: is this what awaits women politicians, councilors and mukhiyas in coming days?
Patna: Bihar is shocked by the violent attack on Bima Bharati, a JD[U] MLA recently elected from Rupauli. As these words get written, she lies seriously injured at the Patna Medical College Hospital[PMCH]. Things moved swiftly after the 15th December when Purnia SP Nayyar Hasnain Khan received a call from a traumatized MLA seeking his assistance. She was found senseless on the bed at her home with multiple fractures and injuries all over the body, police said.
The brief history of the relationship is as follows : the couple had a love marriage more than two decades ago. In the 1995 assembly election the husband Awadhesh Mandal lost election from Ruapauli, the same constituency where Bima Mandal subsequently won twice as an RJD and recently as a JD[U] candidate. Reports are that the rage of the husband was shared by five other men including Awadhesh Mandal’s driver.
What is well-known is that this rage has been growing over the years. This is not the first time and at least twice in the past, Bima Manadal was attacked violently and badly hurt by the husband. Awadhesh Mandal is not simply known as a wife-beater but as a luminary of the world of crime has had dozens of criminal cases against him for over a decade.
While we hope for the MLA’s speedy recovery, thus horrible incident raises a number of questions.
Did the attack on Bima Mandal come from a frustrated and defeated politician or from a husband or from a combination of both?
First, when we speak of women’s empowerment, we must also give a thought to retaliatory violence by men. At times or rather most often, this violence may come from ones dear and near, such as husbands, brothers and fathers. This example goes to show that there may be similar tales of violence hidden at the panchayat level, where we have mukhiyapatis running panchayats by proxy. This phenomenon has often been treated as a butt of jokes and ridicule, and needs to be taken more seriously as some of these women mukhiyas become more assertive sooner than expected.
The trouble is that over time as the passive women mukhiyas assert their rights, the ‘patis’ may want to suppress them through all the means available. In brief, when we unleash social and institutional reforms, we should be ready to face some of its unpleasant consequences. It is likely that in the years to come we may see a rise in such violence at least in the short term.
Some well-known women candidates and politicians at various levels have dealt with this issue by constantly paying extra attention to their husbands or by seeking their constant approval as part of their family protocol. But this precarious balance maintained diplomatically may not always keep the husbands pleased or satisfied.
In a wider sense thus, the new Bihar also faces tremendous challenges on the social front. The husband-wife relation in semi-rural Bihar which has stayed unchanged for as long as one remembers, is showing cracks and a new balance is perhaps required. Women’s reservations at the panchayat and town council levels is bound to create new tensions in our families.
Are we ready for these changes?