Wheth-er or not Anna Haz-are’s rag tag army can actually make the difference to the nation’s moral compass, the rather obvious truth of the matter is, things on every level seem to be falling apart. Corruption rules. And women are the worst hit. Take what happened in Haryana.

Today, men in power are safe in the knowledge that nobody can touch them, even if they are responsible for exploiting and killing women they have no further use for.
A person like former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, for example. He must not be allowed to get away with his crime — and a crime, it is — only because that has become the culture of our abjectly conscienceless society. Driving a woman to suicide after prolonged intimidation and harassment is so routine, so shockingly “accepted”, nobody reacts with the level of outrage that such a terrible act warrants.
Unless Geetika Sharma’s family finds influential supporters in high places, chances are, her tragic death will go unpunished, and the brazen minister will go on with his dissipated life, treating Geetika’s suicide as just another slightly annoying inconvenience which the media is wasting its time on.
The same goes for the fiery Fiza, who met an equally grim end in Mohali, after her well publicised and very dramatic “marriage” to another rogue politician called Chander Mohan, a former deputy chief minister of Haryana, which produces arch villains. It makes one wonder what it is about Haryana and its men. Is it their diet? What do these nasty men eat and drink that turns them into beasts? Where were their own mothers and sisters during those formative years when good values are supposed to be imparted to children? Or their fathers? Grand-parents? Teachers? Friends? What has created this brutal climate of violence against women in the state? Booze? Murgi? Or just the narcotic called unbridled power?
Geetika was clearly a victim in the relationship, going by the evidence provided to the police.
Kanda stalked and blackmailed a beautiful woman — an employee and was willing to go to any length to destroy her subsequently. What was her crime? She had dared to move on with her life and wasn’t interested in continuing the relationship with her old boss. That was enough of an “insult” for Kanda, to hound her relentlessly… get her fired from a new job… attack her character… accuse her of committing a financial fraud. To make matters worse, Kanda involved Aruna Chaddha, another female employee, to threaten and bully Geetika into submission. That Geetika preferred death on surrender to such a tormentor shows the extent of her despair.
Fiza’s case is equally pathetic. But unlike Geetika, Fiza (originally Anuradha Bali) was an ambitious go-getter, ready to switch religions and loyalties to “marry” the much-married Chander Mohan (Chand Mohammed, post-conversion to Islam), and launch a political party. That nobody around Fiza realised she’d killed herself till her body was discovered four days later is an even sadder commentary on how we devalue women’s lives. And how easily the men who drive them to these extremes generally get away with the crime, only because society at large has no sympathy for “such” women. The operative word, of course, is “such”. If the woman happens to be clever and gorgeous, God help her! She gets instantly branded. Finger-pointing follows — the standard put-downs (“she must be conniving, calculating, cheap… she must have trapped that poor fellow…”) pile up. And when a tragedy does take place, most agree the woman had it coming. Or that “she asked for it”. Even family members lack understanding and sympathy. They often sound pretty relieved! They are often the very people who may have profited from the woman’s proximity to power and all
the trappings that go with it.
Geetika’s parents have released telling photographs taken on family holidays with Kanda. Were they so naïve as to not be aware of the nature of their daughter’s relationship with the minister? Or, were they passive witnesses to the liaison? Happy to look the other way while the going was good? Now, her brother claims their lives are under threat and has asked for police protection. But why didn’t these same family members protect poor Geetika from this sadistic man and his cohort when she was being mentally tortured?
It is rather ironic that on the same day as newspapers were filled with stories about Geetika and Fiza, another sensational society story in Mumbai took an unexpected turn. Sheetal Mafatlal who had been fighting a very public and bitter battle with her husband Atulya and his family received an unconditional apology from him and her step-daughter. This could well be the first time any “wronged” woman has had the bitter-sweet pleasure of tasting victory in such a manner. As of now, Sheetal stands vindicated. All those vicious charges against her have been dropped by three family members, leaving just a very hostile, unbending mother-in-law and two others to continue the fight. Sheetal must have really good karma for this to happen, and, of course, excellent lawyers. It is indeed unusual that a sexy socialite’s pricey lingerie gets washed in public and she emerges smiling for the cameras, with a sheepish husband swearing eternal love, by her side.
Sheetal is clearly made of reinforced steel. She fought long and hard to secure herself on her own terms. Geetika and Fiza, obviously, lacked what it takes to survive multiple assaults on their respective characters. Today, both women are dead. As for the men — is it a wonder that they have distanced themselves from the tragedy claiming they were not “in touch” with the victims. While Fiza’s family has not blamed anybody so far, the Sharmas are trying to drum up support by insisting that they are afraid Kanda will now hurt them.
In both cases, two well-connected men from Haryana have destroyed the lives of their one-time lovers. Will the men pay for their crimes? Why not refer to the Ruchika Girhotra case? There we have the answer…