Mahua Moitra when she says the PM is catcalling the CM whenever he drawls “
Didi-O-Didi”. In this case, Narendra Modi is heckling a political rival and the rest is unfortunate culturally misplaced intonation. That does not, however, change the fact that in this frenzied grab for Bengal, our politicians have predictably and generously traded in gendered slights. Everyone knows, when pushed to a corner, society will berate women for characteristics /roles/physiognomy/instincts, typically in the absence of which you wouldn’t be able to tell apart one gender from another. No less than the great Aristotle said in his Physiognomonics that some aspects of womanliness, such as her high pitched voice, can be equated with evil. In The Gender of Sound, Anne Carson writes, “Aristotle tells us… creatures who are brave and just (like lions, bulls, roosters, and the human male), have large deep voices.”
“Poribartan” in West Bengal?
New Delhi: The Bhagirathi-Hooghly river flowing through
West Bengal rarely bursts its banks. The songs and verses composed on the river flow in a quiet rhythm. The river cannot be a metaphor for Bengal’s politics that is in a churn at normal times and erupts into turbulence closer to an election as it’s happening. The BJP smelt blood and went for the jugular. It would love to think its opponent,
Mamata Banerjee, is like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
Amit Shah proclaimed on day one of his latest Bengal visit that by the time the elections come, Mamata will have nobody for company except herself.