This debate on cheerleaders

What I found sick-making was that on the day that Maharashtra’s politicians debated whether cheerleaders should be banned for ‘obscenity’, a 12-year-old child was raped by a traffic policeman in Delhi. The little girl was waiting at a bus stop last week when she was dragged into a car and raped. This is not the first time this has happened in our capital city. And in the brothels of Mumbai, girls as young as ten are forced into prostitution because ‘conservative’ Indian men have not been taught that pedophilia is a sickness. Why do we never hear a debate about these things in our legislatures? Why do things like rape and child prostitution never become a political issue? Could it be because our politicians see these things as an integral part of Indian civilisation?

As someone who believes that preserving Indian civilisation is very, very important, I pay close attention to what our politicians do by way of its preservation. I look out for signs that our political class has understood the importance of protecting our ancient monuments from falling into terminal decay. And I look out for signs that our education ministers have recognised the importance of promoting Indian studies in our universities and promoting literature in Indian languages in our schools. I see no sign anywhere in India that this has begun to happen. While sitting in on an English lesson in a Kannada medium school in Mumbai recently, I flicked through the pages of a book the teacher was using to teach English and found it filled with pictures of little white children in London and New York doing things that would be a complete mystery to an Indian child. The only Indian touch to the lesson was this pledge, written in chalk on the blackboard. ‘India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall strive to be worthy of it’.

... contd.