Asaram comes under attack from De

KOLKATA: She has tweeted ceaselessly on the Nirbhaya episode, but Shobhaa De's disgust knew no bounds when she commented on spiritual leader guru Asaram Bapu's recent remarks on the gang-rape victim. "He says you should look for rakhi in your handbag to save yourself from getting raped," De said on Thursday.
"Asaram go back to your caves. Asaram wants women to be armed with rakhis.O Brother!" De had posted on Twitter, asserting that her "Solitary wish for the New Year" was a "a rape-free India".
Forty-eight hours later, at the launch of her latest book - Sethji - in Kolkata, angry words flew from the author-columnist. At the launch, which was also a part of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, De grimaced every time she referred to Nirbhaya. "Nothing has changed for the woman except that she has now found her voice," she said.
De recalled the "unchanged" first 40 pages of Sethji - penned by her 13 years ago and published as they were written - the chapters where the protagonist rues (in the context of his son brutally raping a northeastern student) that 'In my time a woman was raped a 100 times and she would keep her ****** mouth shut'."
"Nothing has changed in India since I started writing the book. The media is more upfront. We get protests on the streets. The arrogance is still there - both in the ruling class to the men in the society. Why, one of our ministers even said during the recent outrage that the government doesn't go to the people," the author said.
In India, every woman is a survivor, said De, as she took questions from a college-goer who wondered whether the number of rapes would decline if the country had more women cab and bus drivers? "Chances are that these women taxi drivers and the bus drivers would themselves be raped. We need a deep understanding of the issue, rather than tokenisms like getting women bus drivers," she observed.
On being asked by another visitor if the identity of the rape accused should be revealed, De replied, Another woman wanted to know if the identity of the rape accused should be revealed, the author replied,
"Why do you want to see what the rapist looks like? Any one could be a rapist - even your neighbour. What we need is new laws to protect women, not just from rape but from every brutality."
The Bengali bouma (daughter-in-law) who felt "pampered and loved every time I came to Kolkata" talked about how "sex is kind of cruel and has been the tool of domination," in her novels. "Most of the sex in my novels is sadistic. Any patriarchal society uses sex to dominate," De signed off.