KOCHI: The French politician Dominique Strauss Kahn, known to his friends as DSK, was caught for sexual assault of a hotel maid in New York when he was the managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2011 his acolytes orchestrated an elaborate campaign to extricate their boss from the sordid affair. The l’affaire rescue DSK is a good lesson for anyone interested in fighting the menace of sexual assault and violence.
The well-entrenched patriarchal bias, vulnerability of the victim and the financial, political and social clout enjoyed by the perpetrator were the ingredients used by his supporters in their game plan. DSK and his supporters used all these to the hilt to get away from charges with minimum damages. The first line of defence was, of course the denigration of the woman, who lodged the complaint against the accused.
The credibility of the woman, a migrant to the US from a desperate third world country, was the first point of suspicion. The narrative soon developed into the doubtful credentials of her travel documents and financial conditions. The attempt was to create doubts about the credibility of the allegation raised by such a person in the minds of the people. The pattern is the same in every instance of sexual assault and violence.
The systematic manner in which the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (A.M.M.A) obfuscated the very simple facts connected with the abduction and sexual assault of a woman actor followed this well established tradition. The primary motive of the leadership of organisation was to protect the interest of Dileep, the prime accused in the case, according to the police.
The rest of the actions were only to serve this primary concern. The decision to revoke the suspension of Dileep was only the culmination of this process. The rest is only buffoonery. The people bored by the unbearable shallowness of the Malayalam mainstream cinema may be tempted to hold to on to this make believe world.
