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The streak of viciousness to electorally humiliate Mr Gandhi is unmistakable, though it cannot be faulted.Days before it was made official that Congress president Rahul Gandhi would fight from Wayanad in Kerala as well as from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and there was a strong buzz that he would choose a second constituency, a worker in the Varanasi area office of the BJP, Amarnath Awasthe, declared triumphantly: "We have won Amethi. That is how politics is played. It is a laudable ideal, but there is a contradiction in the position. But if they believe that the Congress has a crucial role to play because it could win more seats than all the rest of the anti-BJP parties put together, then they cannot ask the Congress to play second fiddle. Even if it is assumed that Mr Gandhi loses in Amethi as did Indira Gandhi in Rae Bareli in 1977, then the party can find ways of bringing back the leader.

It would be a fair apprehension but then the Congress must voice its suspicion and its fears in a bold and honest manner.According to Congress insiders, there was a strong suspicion that the BJP would indulge in foul play to defeat Mr Gandhi in Amethi because the party was in power in Lucknow as well as in New Delhi. In the 1980 Lok Sabha election, she fought from Medak as well as Rae Bareli. The BJP’s thinking is rooted in antiquated norms, and it is out of sync with democratic politics. There is no need for Mr Gandhi or the Congress to feel apologetic for choosing Wayanad.But Mr Gandhi’s Wayanad move has left the two Communist parties and the ardent anti-BJP folk red in the face. Neither the BJP nor Ms Irani have any special attachment to or concern for Amethi or its people. If the Communist parties feel that defeating the BJP with its toxic communal and nationalist agenda is of the highest national priority, and if it feels that the Congress has a role to play, then the LDF candidate should be withdrawn from Wayanad. It is a judgment call to be taken by the two parties themselves. In the wake of the "office of profit" controversy, Mrs Sonia Gandhi had fought from Bellary in Karnataka as well as from Amethi in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.It would be much better for the Congress to explain its stand with regard to the decision to choose a second constituency for Mr Gandhi. The BJP’s intention of electorally decapitating the Congress by defeating Mr Gandhi in Amethi is puerile thinking at best. The anti-BJP group of parties will have to decide whether they need the Congress in the first place.The fight between the BJP and Congress over Mr Gandhi is a simple one. The BJP leaders and workers can rightfully claim that they succeeded in pushing Mr Gandhi out of his comfort zone.The question however remains: Would it have been honest on the part of Mr Gandhi and the Congress to fight the good fight in Amethi despite the potential "foul play" that the BJP could have indulged there, and only then look for another constituency? It is not for outsiders, including political observers, to say what Mr Gandhi and the Congress should do nor not do, or what the BJP and Ms Irani should in fact do in Amethi.

If they feel that the Congress has lost its political footprint in large parts of the country, then the non-Congress anti-BJP parties should leave out the Congress altogether. Any other reason that the party leaders would want to offer would be mere rationalisation. For five years after her defeat in 2014, the BJP’s losing candidate in Amethi, Smriti Irani, visited the constituency regularly and got many things done for the people, no doubt by virtue of her position as a prominent minister at the Centre. The burst of anger against Mr Gandhi in the anti-BJP circles is understandable, because the anti-BJP folk assume that it is the duty of all non-BJP parties to defeat the BJP and save the secular fabric of Indian democracy.It makes perfect sense for the Congress strategists to throw a ring of protection around their president, Mr Gandhi, and find a safe seat for him. The anti-BJP parties have as much obligation to provide a safe constituency to Mr Gandhi as the Congress itself." The mesغير مجاز مي باشدe, whether it was intended to be so or not, was that Mr Gandhi was not too confident about his victory in Amethi. They appear to be outraged that Mr Gandhi, instead of fighting against the BJP, is now pitting himself against the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala. He cannot take Amethi, his family’s pocket borough for decades, for granted any longer. And it makes political sense as well. It is the antiquated military strategy that once the commander of the "enemy" side is defeated, then the enemy army would collapse. It should have openly declared that it does not expect the BJP to fight a fair election in Amethi, and that it suspects that the BJP would misuse its position of being the party in power in the state as well as the Centre to lure and to intimidate the people of Amethi from voting in favour of Mr Gandhi. There was little doubt that the BJP was hell-bent on defeating Rahul Gandhi. Indira Gandhi fought the byelection from Chikmagalur in 1978 after she tasted defeat from Rae Bareli in the historic 1977 post-Emergency Lok Wholesale Knitted Fabric Factory Sabha election. It would send a clear signal to the BJP that its bid to demolish the Congress would not succeed. The BJP believes that if Mr Gandhi is defeated in Amethi, then the defeat of the Congress would be complete. But the election remains to be fought, and there is a possibility that Ms Irani might lose yet again, though the mind games that the BJP is playing there seem to give her an advantage.

Beliefs of how a man should behave, or how a woman should act in society are embedded in the cultural fabric and difficult to change.Tarana Burke, an activist from Harlem, explains her ordeal of meeting a young victim of ***ual harassment.I wanted this session to be over.’ I replied ‘It’s alright’. The one who amused children with his literary magic, was allegedly a paedophile.

The unequal power dynamics in my ordeal and the ***ual harassment victims/abuser could be that of superior/junior, teacher/student, parent/child or any such relations where one person has some kind of power over the other. However, she was hyperactive, had a high-pitched voice and anger-filled behaviour. It was father’s excited talk which gave me the idea that the poet that day was someone important. They may also suffer emotional trauma. Proverbs might differ in different regions, but many are in a similar vein: "A leaf falling on thorn or otherwise harms the leaf’ or the ubiquitous "Boys will be Boys"Others imply that ***ual harassment is permitted for men while women should keep quiet.Burke recalls, "Heaven, a sweet-faced little girl, kind of clung to me through the camp. I reluctantly conceded. That was the last day of my marking. The allegations against the poet did not stop there as several women narrated their own ordeal from him. I might have looked surprised, and he instantly apologised and said, ‘I hope you use these words in your country, please excuse. I couldn’t move, my neck burned; I sweated. I was frequently rescuing her from some situation or the other. The effects of gaslighting cause the gaslightee to experience self-doubt, diminished self-esteem, confusion, anxiety, depression, and can even provoke psychosis. A senior lecturer in invited me to his office to conduct marking.It was in the mid 1970s that ***ual harassment was recognised as a pervasive social problem. I was told about his increasing workload, how tired he was, and his words were ‘F**k, oh F**k’.‘It was my senior lecturer’I worked part-time at university, and taught graduate and postgraduate students.

As Wong found, these questions proved that in the Indian cultural context, ***ual harassment is sometimes permissive. I was horrified by her words, and I listened until I could not take it anymore. Her bonding with this young girl a decade ago in a youth camp hosted by Just Be Inc inspired her to start the heat transfer printing on fabricMeToo campaign. I was exhausted soon and fell asleep, when I woke up I found uncle lying next to me, his hand between my thighs, pressing me with his fingers. It also encompasses unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange of ***ual favours. Such arguments indicate that men see ***ual harassment as a privilege and treats women as ***ual objects.Much more to itClearly, ***ual harassment is more than mere physical advances, covering any unwelcome conduct like verbal remarks, ***ual comment or manipulation of situations to gain control and get ***ual favours offered as ‘gaslighting’."The narration shocked many. Moreover, society keeps reminding women from an early age the importance of shame, humility and more importantly keeping quiet.He sang a children’s poem, taught us to sing them and scolded us when we got it wrong. And I couldn’t even bring myself to whisper… me too. Social researcher Katherine Wong (2010) examines ***ual harassment around the globe to conclude that it involves intimidation, coercion or bullying of a ***ual nature. She had a deep sadness and a yearning for confession that I read immediately and wanted no part of. When I reached the office he wanted a hug. Smelling of alcohol, the grey-haired man’s eyes grew small when he smiled. Since father wrote poems, several poets used to visit us. Uncle loved children, used to write, recite and teach poems to children. I said ‘Can we please begin marking?’ He apologised and then as we continued working, the remarks came again. It was all over soon as uncle said, but I can still feel the burn even as I am writing this. Finally, she almost begged me to listen.(The writer is a research scholar in Gender and organisational Culture at the University of York, England). My voice was frozen, when I tried to move away he affectionately told me ‘it will be over soon, soon’.Cultural FactorsIn the case of the poet, some remarked that he was entitled to be a little naughty, as his poems mattered, not his character.Power, a key issue  Power is argued as being # a ‘key issue in ***ual harassment’ in several studies. Recently, a young girl from South India wrote of her childhood abuse by a famous poet:‘Poet uncle molested me’"I was ten when father told us uncle is coming home to visit us. I was shocked, terrified and never dared to go back to the department if he was around.

Then he continued to ask me to say the word, his words were ‘can you say it, let me hear, say ‘F**k’ I like to hear it’. When it grew dark, he came to the house with father."Though initially launched to aid ***ually abused underprivileged women of colour, the #MeToo movement soon gained popularity across the globe.Through discourse and history women are equated with suffering, pain and patience. My work included marking assignments. For the next several minutes this child struggled to tell me about her "step-daddy" or rather her mother’s boyfriend who was doing all sorts of monstrous things to her developing body.I watched her walk away as she tried to recapture her secrets and tuck them back into her young mind, put on her mask and go back into the world like she was all alone. The next day I dreaded the idea of going there but had to as I had a contract.