There is an interesting story about Amit Shah’s first election victory, narrated by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai in his book 2024: The Election That Surprised India. Shah was then a student and an ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) candidate in a college election. His principal rival was a woman, and she was popular.

More importantly, the college had a sizeable number of women voters. Shah and his supporters feared that if the election became a straight contest, he would lose. That was when the young Shah apparently devised a strategy.

His associates obtained the telephone numbers of some of the girls’ homes. (Those were the days of the landline!) Their parents were telephoned and warned that on polling day there might be trouble on campus. The warning had the desired effect. Some parents apparently decided not to send their daughters to college that day. The number of women voters consequently fell and, in what was reportedly a close contest, Shah won.

Sardesai recounts the episode not as a moral lesson but as illustrative of the tactical mind of a man who would eventually become one of India’s most powerful politicians.

The attempt here is not to discuss the ethics of that particular victory but to imagine what would happen if such a manoeuvre were tried today. I suspect the result would be very different. If someone attempts to frighten her, today’s young woman will ask: Who is trying to frighten me, and why? And if someone tells her to stay away, she might do exactly the opposite!

The age of women who suffered quietly, went home crying, and tried to forget what made them cry is rapidly disappearing. The Indian woman, particularly the young Indian woman, is more confident, more conscious of her rights and much less prepared to accept intimidation as destiny.

Also Read: What option do people have but to protest?

We have enough examples of women who challenged male power. Jhansi’s Rani Lakshmibai fought the British to protect her kingdom.........

© National Herald