For over a decade, we have repeatedly heard the slogan: Naryastu yatra poojayante Ramante tatra Devta – Where women are worshipped, the Gods reside. But despite that, India’s most powerful political party has given ample hints that it harbours a deep dislike for feminists. In its aggressive shrillness, their anger toward feminists stands next only to the anger they reserve for the Vaampanthi, Left-wing groups.After the Bihar elections, a young and shy 25-year-old singer, who had had nothing to do with politics thus far, was handpicked and catapulted to fame when she was allocated a ticket from the Alipur constituency. A landslide win for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition followed, and Maithili Thakur became the youngest legislator in the newly elected Bihar Assembly.Why aren’t the feminists celebrating Maithili Thakur’s victory in Bihar? asked one @anulall, with a link to her longer article in News18 on X, in which the writer suggested it was perhaps because Thakur did not fit the cultural template of imported ‘feminism’. “We have been taught” (by whom?) she went on, without providing proof, to say that all feminists distance themselves from patriarchy, love to smash the accepted mould and have adopted a Western persona. “They don’t see strength in desi,” she added.Illustration: Pariplab ChakrabortyReactions from trolls that soon floated up on X were quick to further the assumption:“…because she (Maithili) is NOT (sic) nude and abusive.” (@dramanker)“(As a) modestly dressed, spiritually inclined woman she does not fit into the narratives of pseudo-feminists.” (@RoseTint4)“#Feminism has nothing to do with women empowerment… is a tool of radically Islamic terror to..break Hindu families.” (@rajesh271285400)Maithili is undoubtedly a good singer and had won admiration from her listeners for her obvious musical talent even before she was drawn into politics. But a referendum like the one above magnifies the worst insults feminists have been subjected to by the Right. It is no secret that our democracy is already mired in a rising graph of crimes against women and that pro-women laws have not helped the victims much.There have been multiple controversial legal verdicts where rapists and abusers of women were let out on bail, or the charges against them were suddenly dropped as witnesses turned hostile or died and proofs remained ‘unsubstantiated’.Also read: As Crimes Against Women Rise, Delhi’s Women’s Commission Stays ClosedAs a first-time and youngest member of Bihar’s Legislative Assembly, Thakur is unarguably a raw recruit. All she could promise her constituents during her campaign was, with a timid smile, that she would give them regular “darshan” and, party permitting, she would rename her constituency of Alinagar after Sita. Since then, when asked how she sees herself in her new political avatar, reports mostly quote the singer saying, “Party will know what they have in mind for me. I’ll do whatever the party orders.”In an atmosphere increasingly turning hostile toward deemed enemies of the state, it was unsurprising that a day before the festival of love, peace and goodwill to all, we learnt that a former BJP MLA, Kuldip Singh Sengar, serving time under serious charges of rape and murder, had been granted bail by the Delhi High Court, which had also chosen to suspend his life sentence using bureaucratic hair-splitting over his being or not being a ‘public servant’.When the news came, an Uttar Pradesh minister was widely seen smirking on TV screens, while the astonished victim, whose father died in custody, reacted and said she would challenge the verdict and sit in dharna at India Gate in protest against her tormentor being let out of jail.“India Gate?” the media reported the minister saying, “but her home is in Unnao!”On the same day, a Delhi court acquitted three people charged with an acid attack on a young girl in Panipat, who fought her perpetrators in court for long and had the case transferred from Haryana to Delhi, even though she could barely scrape together the money required to make trips to the court and get herself treated. The victim, who has lost an eye and has a badly scarred face, says she will approach the high court.But after convicted rapists like Asaram and Ram Rahim have been given bail multiple times and Bilkis Bano’s rapists were pardoned and set free, who can assure her that she will get justice?Also read: The Curious Case of the President’s Expression of OutrageThis is not only about rapists going unpunished. It is also about communalising crimes such as rape and violence. While in Delhi the Prime Minister visited the Cathedral Church of Redemption and made a speech there, tracing his long relationship with the Church, mobs violated and vandalised a shopping mall over its Christmas displays.On Christmas day, in a widely circulated video, one heard a BJP district vice president, a woman, angrily accusing the staff and Christmas revellers of carrying out conversions. During a scuffle that followed, even a visually impaired school teacher’s wife was verbally assaulted and intimidated. The district vice president has since apologised and cited ‘misinformation’ for her entry and hot words – but will matters rest there?There is no protest against such behaviour from the BJP’s firebrand women leaders who, when in Opposition, went blue in the face demanding resignations after Nirbhaya was raped and killed. One can assume that the party seniors are crusty politicians who tailor their reactions carefully. But why was there no reaction from the youngest MLA from Bihar, who might be the same age as the girl from Unnao or Panipat?Instead, since December 25 also happened to be the birthday of one of her politically idolised leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, we saw Thakur soulfully sing a poem of his:Geet naya gata hoon / Haar nahin manoonga / Raar Nayi Thanoonga / Kaal ke kapal per likhta mitata hoon…I sing a song of the new / I shall not be defeated / I shall continue to write and erase words / Inscribed on the forehead of Time.Will the demurely dressed young MLA be guided by empathy as a woman, or will she prefer to remain largely dependent on the image the male leadership seeks to build for her? The choice seems to have already been made.From colleges to official meetings, young Indian women and girls mostly prefer to remain in conservative mode. Even most of our campuses are full of male rebellious leaders – very few are women – who stand up to be counted. Women, as Gloria Steinem said, radicalise late. They have first to personally experience some reality checks: about hierarchies in decision-making bodies, lower average allocation of important portfolios and the expected total compliance with male orders that they may not be entirely happy with.The need for legal changes, equal matrimonial status and an end to sexual harassment at workplaces that liberal feminists have gradually ushered in are essential accompaniments for young women as well. But even our first wave of feminists were greying matronly women, such as Sarojini Naidu, Amrit Kaur, Kamala Debi Chattopadhyaya, Ammu Swaminathan, Begum Aijaz Rasool, Durga Bai Deshmukh, Hansa Ben Mehta and Sucheta Kripalani.A little later, they were joined by Ela Bhatt, Veena Majumdar and Lotika Sarkar, who recorded the first ever reports on Indian women’s state and status. All were middle-aged by the time they rose to prominence.So, no feminist aware of our history would disrespect young Maithili Thakur or hold back praise for her individual musical talent. We are happy there is one more woman in Bihar’s gender-deficient Assembly and wish her well, with the hope that she shall challenge all those tainted colleagues who are there only for power and making money.But let Thakur not forget that Indian party politics is a system that men have designed and operated for almost a century – but it always has room for change. Leaders who put a Mithila Pugree on Thakur’s head did not realise that she would innocently invert the male headgear onto her lap and munch makhanas out of it like popcorn. Do we take that as a happy omen?Mrinal Pande is a writer and veteran journalist.Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues.