B K Karkra
A celebrated personality of the Bhakti Movement in the sixteenth century, Goswami Tulsi Das, wrote, “Samarath ko nahien dosh gosain”. (The mighty are beyond blame). His doctrine stood the test of time for nearly half a millennium, but has lately come to be challenged by the # Me-Too movement which seems to be gathering momentum with every passing day. It appears that this campaign is in the genre of the great revolutions in the world that have changed the course of history. The movement has already sprayed far beyond the U.S. shores and even many of our own high and mighty, like Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, M.J. Akbar, Rahul Johri and Sajid Khan are already in its grip. The list is likely to keep on lengthening.
The fact of the matter is that males and females have a natural urge to merge and every young woman is equipped with some bodily assets that are saleable— more beautiful her face and more shapely her body, more pricy these are. Sometimes these are purchased and occasionally these are just robbed. There is yet another category of cases where those in a position of power just predate on these consensually, taking advantage of some need of the woman. The # Me-Too movement has something to do largely with this class of cases. The U.S. President, Trump, who is not known for much sophistication and is himself said to be involved with many women, once put this phenomenon crudely in words something like this, “If a man is powerful enough, he can catch hold of any woman by her c**t”.
There is a theory that man and woman were initially androgynous. At some stage of their evolution they got separated, but ever since they carry an overpowering urge to re-unite. Thus, every man would like to sleep with any good-looking young woman. It is only the law and social pressure that keeps him off this urge. Though composed in a lighter vein, these lines of a poet have a fair amount of truth in these, “Pakeezagi kaa shor machatey hain woh bazurag, pakarhi gayeen naa gin sey jawaani mein machhlian” (Only those elderly fellows who somehow failed to trap girls in their youth raise the hue and cry over morality).
Besides, sex between couples involves such an intense pleasure that both the partners feel indebted to each other. The sweet words and sighs exchanged during the act, if repeated with a new partner would ring hollow. This also promotes a sense of fidelity. In fact, the laws and the social mores also seem to be based on this fact. But once you break free from this feeling, then you tend to fly in all directions.
It appears that the #Me-Too movement is losing direction as fast, as it is gaining in intensity with the new-found boldness of some eves. The victims or survivors, whatever you call them, are opening far too many fronts. They need to be clear what exactly they are wanting. There are plethora of cases of illicit liaisons between man and woman in all fields of life everywhere.. We have to first understand that sex per se is not sin. Sexual pleasure seems to be directly related to the need for procreation. Without sex, this earth would get vacated of human footfalls in one hundred years or so. O.A. Wall rightly records in this context:-
“All excellence of character, all loveliness and all seductiveness of body serve but to attract two individuals through love, in order that a spermatozoon may come in contact with an ovum, to produce a new being.”
Osho in his book, “Sex to Super Consciousness, Full Circle”, goes to the length of suggesting that if sex be a sin, there would be no greater sinner than God. Thus, the basic truth is that ‘what is natural, cannot be obscene’, though the human societies have laid some guidelines for sex-related pursuits. These norms differ from society to society. The legal provisions on this issue also vary from country to country. But there is a broad agreement that sex outside marriage that is not consensual or where consent has not been appropriately obtained should be deemed illegitimate. Even here, there are some exceptions.
Thus, the cases of inappropriate sex need to be categorised before some corrective action is initiated in this area. Otherwise, the # Me-Too movement would fall in confusion. Let us begin with the legend of Vishwamitra who was honey-trapped by sending a heavenly damsel Maneka to him to denude the great ascetic of the accumulated spiritual power that the gods saw as threat to their position. If a person of his standing could not resist the female charms, a common man cannot just be expected to swim against this powerful current. Thus, quite a few priests, including Popes, ‘Rishi`s, ‘Baba`s’, Swami`s, Presidents, judges, generals and celebrities from various walks of life—particularly from the world of the films (casting coach and dirty picture are quite a fact), sports and politics have been occasionally succumbing to the female flesh. Weinstein and his likes in U.S., India and elsewhere are not, in any way, the rare beings. They belong to the species found everywhere in the world.
One has heard a lot about President Clinton and Lewinsky scandal. The lady had saved her dress sprinkled with the President`s semen. So, he had to admit at least to his inappropriate behaviour with her. All that he could manage to hide was the final act. We also know about the actress Tarana visiting Yahya Khan in his presidential palace and his security guards stopping her curtly, before there are orders from inside to send her in. On her return, the security fellows treat her deferentially, after all she had gone in as plain and simple ‘Tarana’ and now she had come out as ‘Quami Tarana’. It is also on record that Pope Paul III had three sons from a woman not his wife. His sister was, in fact, was a concubine of an earlier Pope, Alexander VI. Kirk Douglas contracted oral cancer giving cunnilingus to his heroines. Some of our film heroes are also not far behind in this game
It is, thus, impossible to reopen such cases because these run in to millions. We have to exclude cases where the ladies sold their virtue willingly in pursuit of their ambitions and concentrate on those where the eves get sexually abused against their will, exploiting some need on their part. On balance, the campaign, if rightly followed, may well get recorded as the Third Glorious Revolution in the world history after the ones in England in 1688 and Spain in 1868. This may put fear of God in heads that now feel free to seek sexual favours from the women to whom they are in a position to do some good or bad.
(The author is an Advocate, Supreme Court)
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