From Kanimozhi in Tihar to Krittika in a New York jail

Suddenly, the evening news is like an exploitation movie of the women-in-prison genre, starring Krittika Biswas and K Kanimozhi. (This genre is typified by memorable American movies such as Caged Heat and Chained Heat.) What stands out from each woman’s ordeal is the physical discomfort: having to use the toilet in front of others, in Krittika’s case; and the mosquitoes, the concrete bed, and Tihar’s lack of air-conditioning, in Kanimozhi’s case. As Michel Foucault points out in Discipline and Punish, prison draws attention to the convict’s body; and our media never misses an opportunity to feed its audience’s prurient curiosity. As a result of their prison humiliations, Krittika is suing the City of New York for USD 1.5 million while Kanimozhi’s family is going to ensure that the ruling UPA-II pays equally heavily, if not more.

John Bowne High School was a scary place when I was a teenager in Flushing, Queens. None of my friends who had to attend that school would use the toilets for fear of a mugging (this was also true for the girls’ room). It was mean and tough, and you know about the violence prevalent in American high schools (you may have seen Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine or Gus Van Sant’s Elephant): the authorities take no chances and use extreme force with suspects, even if they’re innocent. Those waving the Vienna Convention and claiming that Krittika enjoyed diplomatic immunity (like Ambassador Meera Shankar, subjected to a “pat-down” at a Mississippi airport six months back) were mysteriously silent during the actual handcuffing back on February 8. If the issue was her immunity, she being the vice-consul’s daughter, it could have been raised then instead of now, suspiciously soon after the US college admission process is over.

You may argue that it’s come up now because someone else confessed to the crime, and the fact he was not similarly handcuffed led to the suit. Anyone who knows a teenager these days would have personal knowledge of at least one case of online harassment. The target is usually a girl or a teacher. Even if the police’s cyber-cell gets involved, it is difficult to track the culprit —  or culprits, perhaps living in the same building as Krittika and the eventual confessor did — and often the school knows who did the deed but has no hard evidence. I’ll bet the Krittika case is murkier than she lets on, so let’s not get jingoistic over it. Most of us know that the Americans have no respect for other nationalities. The thin-skinned among us should emulate a former Army Chief, who never visits his US-settled son, only because he refuses to undergo a “pat-down”.

Mirroring the mystery of what happened in Krittika’s case is the mystery of what will happen in Kanimozhi’s case. For whether or not you feel bad about her father M Karunanidhi breaking down on seeing her in jail, the other UPA coalition partners are apparently feeling bad, thinking that if the Congress can do this to an ex-CM’s daughter, there is no telling what might happen to them.

In the DMK itself, there is a desire for revenge. Former telecom minister A Raja is thinking of turning approver and giving evidence against home minister P Chidambaram, who was finance minister during the allocation of 2G spectrum. It is not clear if Chidambaram made money, but getting mired in the scam would end his undisguised ambition of replacing Dr Manmohan Singh as prime minister.

Then there’s West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is unhappy with the ham-handed ways of the Congress. She apparently needed, um, help during the assembly elections, but she found her poll-partner acting pricey. (A burly UPA ally gave her almost 100 reasons to be his friend.) Now safely ensconced in Writer’s Building, she is said to be contemplating abandoning the government if an opportunity is presented by a no-confidence motion in the coming monsoon session of Parliament. She would likely be joined by Kanimozhi’s dad and his bunch of MPs, Mulayam Singh and his bunch of MPs, the burly UPA ally and his bunch of MPs, and even Jagan Mohan Reddy and his bunch of MPs. The numbers would be enough to finish this government.

The problem, however, would be in trying to form a new government which would be as unstable as global oil prices, even with outside support from both the right and the Left. Both this instability plus a sympathy wave for the dethroned Dr Singh would mean a big return of the Congress to power in 2014, when the next elections are held.

aThat’s a lot of ifs and buts. In the final analysis, what matters is how Kanimozhi’s drama pans out, and whether the Congress keeps its allies seething. If I remember correctly, neither of those two women-in-prison movies, Caged Heat and Chained Heat, ended well for the warden. With such political turbulence building, it’s no wonder the prime minister is mostly abroad these days.

— The writer is the Editor-in-Chief, DNA, based in Mumbai