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Dressed for cheap thrills in India
An IPS officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, proclaimed that he is “doosri Radha”. He has changed his stand now and says that he is Rukmini, Lord Krishna’s wife (Radha is Krishna’s consort, not wife, according to folk lore).
He wore a nose pin since 1992 and followed it up by wearing lipstick, nail enamel and women’s clothes. The Central Government has asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to take action against him for a conduct which was ‘unbecoming of a civil servant’. The Government felt that the officer has brought disrepute to the civil services by his ‘deviant’ behaviour. The officer has applied for voluntary retirement from service and it has reportedly been granted.
What a person does in his or her private life is his affair but when he or she holds a position of responsibility in Government he has to fulfill certain expectations of both the public and the Government. India is a secular country and has no state religion. Everybody is free to practice and pursue his or her faith. But in case a person is a Government official, he is obliged to follow Government rules. This is especially true of services that require their personnel to be in uniform like the IPS. In such services the officials and their subordinates are expected to follow a code of conduct. There are All India Services Conduct Rules, as well as IPS Uniform Rules to guide these Government servants.
In fact, there are ‘dress rules’ not only for police and other uniformed officers but also airhostesses, cabin crews, pilots, doctors, nurses, advocates, watchmen, bus conductors, drivers, railway officials. Even the judges follow a dress code when sitting on the benches to deliver justice. Women are not debarred from joining the Indian Police Service. There are many women in the Indian Police Service, and one of them has become the State Police Chief.
But so far there has been no man in the Indian Police Service who, by proclaiming himself as a woman has become the head of police force.Whatever may be people’s views about the claim of the officer, that he is the female consort of Lord Krishna, neither the police force nor the public in general is gullible. Lord Krishna is above all such antics. In fact, I personally think he would not have approved of a male Radha.
The biggest problem that the officer has created is for his family which finds itself in a quandary. In fact, at the time of vacating his official residence, there were heated arguments between him and his wife, Veena. The situation took an ugly turn when his wife reportedly ripped off his nose ring and pushed him aside leaving him badly bruised. On the complaint of his wife, the police arrived at the IG’s residence and prevented the officer from taking the refrigerator and washing machine with him. The IG has been married for 33 years and has two sons.
His wife says that he has been spending his time embracing a peepal or holy fig tree in his garden and chanting mantras to his beloved lord Krishna. One room in his house is kept sacred and secret. The officer says, “That is my private bed room. Only Krishna can enter there.” The IG believes himself to be the reincarnation of the lady consort of the Hindu god.
However, he claims that he is merely exercising his freedom of religion. But his wife, who is suing him, says he is no woman at heart – just a womaniser. According to a senior officer, “It s a real embarrassment for (the) police force if its senior officer behaves in such manner.”Sixteen-year-old Bhawani Das, a resident of Barabati claims to be an incarnation of Goddess Bhagawati. On November 24 he dressed up in bridal finery donated by local businessmen, wore makeup with the help of beauticians from the town’s best beauty parlour and married the idol of Lord Shiva. He said, “I always felt I am the wife of Lord Shiva. God also asked me in my dreams to perform the marriage ceremony.”
Various theories have been put forward to explain such actions. Some people believe that such behaviour, which includes cross-dressing, is nothing more than an attention-grabbing exercise. Religion, mysticism and self-induced hallucination all combine to give an excuse to validate such myths. Cross dressing does not turn men into women or change their sex.
Another official of UP Government, who ran up a telephone bill of Rs 25,000, claims that it was due to his talking directly to Lord Shiva. He has not clarified as to what is the telephone number of the god or whether the deity has a VSNL connection or some other company.There have been cases in the past where Government officials have incurred huge telephone bills. On inquiries, it has been discovered that the telephone was used for a chat on sexual subjects with people abroad. This officer’s wife as well as the one of retired IPS officer posing first as Radha and now as Rukmini have been left exasperated by their husbands’ antics. In fact, the tendency to be close to god, like the tendency to be close to the power centre, seems to be the trend. You can always sell a ticket to heaven for earthly gains or for forgiveness as the Christian priests did in 16th century which led to the birth of Protestantism.
A psychologist says, “There is no particular reason for cross-dressing. Some individuals are dissatisfied with their biological sex and hence, they think they are trapped in the body of the opposite sex.” Another psychiatrist adds, “Some individuals cross dress purely for sexual arousal, this is called fetishist transvestism. These individuals have no illusions about their gender and rid themselves of the clothes and make-up shortly after they masturbate.”
Another male cross dresser says, “Many cross-dressers (including myself) cannot fully articulate why we have a need to dress up and present ourselves as women. Essentially we have a strong need to express feminine feelings.” Another writer says, “For some, the desire to cross-dress is to reject the very norms that dictate society. Why should some clothes be ‘only for women'”, he asks.
Whatever people may say, there is nothing like dressing with dignity. While people are free to flaunt their divine connections, they are not free to bring ridicule, and humiliation to all those including their families and public who are affected by their antics. It is time to recall what William Hazlitt said, “Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves will in general become of no more value than their dress.”
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