Time to shame and name men

It's a shame he was released on bail shortly after being arrested for allegedly outraging a woman's modesty by masturbating in front of her in public. However, the fact that the Maharashtra Police apprehended him within 24 hours of this crime being reported, is in itself applaud worthy.

This was made possible only because the American woman had the presence of mind to click his photograph from her phone before he got away. She then went on to flay him on social media for this creepy, nauseating and repulsive act.

Also read: Mulayam Singh Yadav is the messiah of rapists

As a woman who has grown up in an India I am no foreigner to men deriving carnal pleasures from such abominable acts in public places. As a woman who has grown up in India, I am no foreigner to statements condoning rapes, to say nothing of men molesting women, by stalwart leaders such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, who find it difficult to accept that a woman can be gang raped because "it is just not practical". Mulayamji's addled mind cannot comprehend how rape can technically be administered when ratio of victim to predator is 1:4.

(Now that the ban has been revoked, someone please point the helplessly ignorant veteran in the direction of some porn sites to help him visualise that ratio at work).

Incidentally, making senseless statements of this nature seems to have become an annual ritual with Mulayam Singh (whose name literally means "soft"). This is the same gentleman who had said something equally deplorable exactly a year ago. "Should rape cases be punished with hanging? They are boys, they make mistakes," Mulayam Singhji had said while campaigning for the national election in Moradabad last year.

Also read: Ten excuses for rape in independent India

When there is a problem with the inherent mindset of some of the leaders of this country, a woman has little choice but to go about being Hercule Poirot herself, collecting evidence while she is violated.

This American woman has demonstrated to us that we can go beyond using our phones for clicking our own selfies from different angles and put it to use when we see a man committing sexual crimes against ourselves or other women. The power and reach of social media cannot be denied. Presidents, prime ministers, top cops and possibly even our Mulayam Singhji, yes they are all on social media today.

Agreed it has managed to enslave some of us and sure it impacts productivity but there isn't a better tool to create awareness when required. From the educated elite to the middle class to their domestic workers, one way or another, everybody is succumbing to the lure of Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. (I got an FB request from my ex-housemaid recently.)

Then why not take matters into our own hands and start a trend of slut shaming men when they ask for it. That man pushing/rubbing himself against you in crowded public places, the university bus and ironically even in queues outside temples, that man flashing at you as you walk to work, yes THAT man deserves to be captured by the camera, if not the police. Sadly, he may well be released on bail later, in the absence of concrete evidence, but at least he may not be able to get away with it entirely, without being disgraced even just a bit.

Also read: Why Mulayam Singh Yadav is a terrifying sexist and women should be afraid of him