{"id":3780,"date":"2022-07-29T16:43:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T10:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/?p=3780"},"modified":"2022-07-29T16:44:51","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T10:59:51","slug":"when-rashtra-patni-mirrors-vaishali-ki-nagar-vadhu-of-yesteryears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/when-rashtra-patni-mirrors-vaishali-ki-nagar-vadhu-of-yesteryears.html","title":{"rendered":"When ‘Rashtra Patni’ mirrors ‘ Vaishali ki Nagar Vadhu’ of yesteryears."},"content":{"rendered":"

”Neel gagan Kay chaon mein, din rain gale say milte hain, Dil panchi ban ur jata hai, ham khoye khoye rahte hai’–How the pejorative designation of the president, Draupadi Murmu as ‘ Rashtra Patni’ by the Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, tantamounts to resurrecting the past memory of Vaishali Ka Nagar Vadhu’, Amrapali by Acharya Chatursen. This, unequivocally, is the blasphemy of the worst form, equating the highest constitutional authority with that of Amrapali, Vaishali ka Nagar Badhu. Small wonder then, the incident is of such a cataclysmic proportion that, to pass it off as a mere faux pas, as Adhir Ranjan wants us to believe, is not only akin to letting go the behemoth of dishonour brought upon the highest constitutional office of the land, but it amounts to dishonouring the dignity of all Adivasis in the country.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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When Rashtrapati Draupadi Murmu has been disdainfully dubbed as Rashtra Patni.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vivekanand Jha Ranchi<\/strong>: The degree of cacophony and furore surrounding the highly derogatory and degrading designation ascribed to the President Draupadi Murmu as ‘ Rashtra Patni’ by Adhi Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress leader, has escalated into a war between the BJP and the Congress. The volley of allegations followed by recriminations, was disdainfully reduced to the unwarranted spat between Smriti Irani and Sonia Gandhi, distastefully dismissed by Sonia Gandhi, ‘ I don’t want to talk to you’, speaks a volume about the insensitivity ensuing from one of the gravest offences ever committee by a parliamentarian to diminish the highest constitutional position of the land as well as condescendingly dismissing the community of Adivasi as inconsequential; a community which is eternally meant for languishing at the bottom of the social pyramid, and anyone from them, of whichever party, by virtue of her incessant perseverance and, that too, against the avalanche of odds stacked against her, needed to be treated with scorn and disdain. Sonia Gandhi’s brushing aside the whole issue as something which ends with a mere apology, beggars a belief that she, notwithstanding her decades of experience in public life, has only learnt to uphold the dignity and gravity of the pantheon of Gandhi- Nehru icons, and making her son Rahul, India’s Prime Minister, everything else simply ceases to matter for her. Having said so, it deserves a mention here that Smriti Irani too is not the holy cow whose accosting Sonia in parliament, had exclusively to do with the issue involved; often the grandstanding on any such issue which can lend her publicity and mileage, she is always seen to be on the front. However, the grave issue involved was too delicate to be dismissed as some sort of frivolous faux pas; it, in fact, was there deliberately orchestrated ploy to undermine the office of presidency and, thereby, the larger community of Adivasis across the country. Small wonder then, the situation is reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhi, despite buying the first class train ticket was thrown out of it for being from the coolie class in South Africa-Indians in those days were treated as lesser citizens in South Africa. It was the brute way of communicating that, notwithstanding all other eligibilities, your being from the Cooly Class debars you from entering the first class compartment of the train. Unequivocally, Adhir Ranjan, hubristically though, had arrogated to himself the right to treat Draupadi Murmu as a trespasser to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, even though she had won the landslide trumping Yashwant Sinha, the candidate of Opposition in the process of entering into Rashtrapati Bhavan.<\/p>\n

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‘ Neel gagan Kay chaon mein, Dil rain gale say milte hain’–Amrapali, the Nagar Vadhu of Vaishali, based on the novel, Vaishali ki Nagar Vadhu by Acharya Chatursen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Decades back, Acharya Chatursen, had written a famous novel, Vaishali ka Nagar Vadhu, based on the life of Amrapali, a courtesan in the kingdom of Vaishali, during the times of Ajat Shatru. Significantly, She was referred to as a ‘ Nagar Vadhu’, which meant a very special status, where the institution of Nagar Vadhu had no right to marry or settle in life; in fact, the duty and responsibility of Nagar Vadhu was only to keep the king and his ministers happy and contented. Moreover, there was an elaborate process for the selection of Nagar Badhu: The most beautiful girl, in the entire kingdom, was selected for the post of Nagar Vadhu, who eventually will cease to have any relations with her family and her kith and kin; she had the only right to be the Nagar Vadhu of that kingdom. Thus the life of Amrapali too had witnessed the volatility of times and vicissitudes of fortune, before calling it quits to her status of Nagar Vadhu and embracing monkhood of Buddhism. Incidentally, with the pearls showered upon her and amidst the raining of wealth upon her, the biting vacuum was palpable to her everywhere: while being designated as Nagar Vadhu, her feminine rights to be a daughter, mother, wife, sister were taken away, while the epithet of Nagar Vadhu was slapped on her, which meant she was for everyone, whereas none was anyone to her. In the veneer and facade of the designation of Nagar Vadhu, she stood confiscated of her basic fundamental rights of being born as a female.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Pratibha Patil, one of the close loyalists of Indira Gandhi, assumed the position of presidency, the debate ensued as to whether the term Rashtrapati needed a modification, in view of a woman occupant reaching the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rashtra Patni, the equivalent term could not be substituted for the obvious reason: It was the derogatory imputation reducing the gravity of the highest constitutional office to that of ‘ Vaishali ki Nagar Vadhu. The negative connotation of the very terminology was sought to be abolished in no time and, therefore, the decision was made that, irrespective of the sex, the terminology Rashtrapati shall continue to be used. Thus Pratibha Patil became the Rashtrapati, and not Rashtra Patni. Significantly, when the matter was resolved once and for all, the latest effort to stir the needless controversy was a deliberate ploy to berate the incumbent occupant by ridiculing her. Should the gravity of the highest constitutional office be reduced to that of the status ‘ Desh ki Patni'( Nation’s wife), is terribly disconcerting. It, unequivocally though, is the vindication of the degeneration of the political discourse in the country today, where even the office of presidency is not kept aloof from sledges and calumny.<\/p>\n

With the benefits of hindsight, whereas the misconduct of Sonia Gandhi was for the nation to witness, the other important issue which is being glossed over is this: The impeachment proceeding which ought to have been initiated against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, is being relegated to the back burner, for the whole episode is inordinately unsavoury where nothing short of impeachment proceeding to have been initiated as an exemplary punishment for this act of moral turpitude –dubbing president in such derogatory and defamatory terms should invite nothing less than introducing an impeachment proceeding in parliament. Moreover, the offence committed is not against an individual, but against the whole Adivasi community of India, which calls for the exemplary punishment. And the impeachment proceeding should have been the most befitting one in the given scenario. Also, given the current turmoil in the polity where lot of contradictions are tumbling out within Hinduism, the alienation of Adivasi from Hinduism –they are already demanding for Sarna code to be declared as the distinct religion–is the biggest threat of Adivasi making a common cause with Christianity. This is the mounting challenge for the nation and consequently it is not the issue of BJP versus Congress, bit an issue between Congress and the nation: how the latter regards only its first family as sacrosanct whereas others are inconsequential, needed an immediate course correction. None is above law, should be the message of this new India and calling Draupadi Murmu as ‘Rashtra Patni’ should not be allowed to go with impunity. Sonia Gandhi should apologise publicly for this grave offence against the highest constitutional office of the land.<\/p>\n

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Vivekanand Jha, author of Delhi Beckons: RaGa for NaMo, 56 Inches and The Making of Narendra Modi, Unmaking of Jawaharlal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vivekanand Jha, an Author, Academician and a Public Intellectual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

”Neel gagan Kay chaon mein, din rain gale say milte hain, Dil panchi ban ur jata hai, ham khoye khoye rahte hai’–How the pejorative designation of the president, Draupadi Murmu as ‘ Rashtra Patni’ by the Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, tantamounts to resurrecting the past memory of Vaishali Ka Nagar Vadhu’, Amrapali by Acharya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-top-stories-of-madhesh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG-20220729-WA0062.jpg?fit=481%2C431&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS11m-YY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}