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It's odd to find a woman in her mid thirties, in smart casuals, and with a coffee mug in hand, wading through a sea of saffron jackets and khadi kurta-pyjama clad men at the Bharatiya Janata Party's national headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road in Lutyens' Delhi.
Smita Barooah, a volunteer for the BJP's 'Mission 272+' social media campaign, is an addictions counsellor on sabbatical from her job in Singapore to help the BJP. Barooah and her colleagues, all volunteers, operate out of a small room at the far end of the BJP headquarters, helping party workers and volunteers with online research material.
"We typically help them fight propaganda on social media about the 2002 riots, charges that the BJP is a communal party or even that it is steeped in patriarchy with no space for women," says Barooah, who has a master's degrees in political science and counselling. She says she is convinced the BJP fights a perception war on all these issues. "This party isn't just about housewives. We have women here from all walks of life," she says.
Barooah's friends were aghast when she told them about her plan to work for the BJP, operate out of its headquarters and brave the rough and tumble of political rallies. "Political party ke liye kaam karogi, aur woh bhi Bhajpa ke liye' was the usual response," she says, just back from covering Narendra Modi's Lucknow rally.
A month at 11, Ashoka Road, says Barooah, has convinced her that when it comes to women's issues of security and empowerment the BJP isn't what many accuse it of. "You can see what it is like outside and I am what I am, but not a single day have I felt uncomfortable, not a single day has anyone passed a comment or done anything to make me feel unwelcome and for me it's the biggest revelation," says Barooah, who is more comfortable in her western outfits. She seldom wears a bindi and never the sindoor, considered pre-requisites for any woman political worker of the BJP.
In this, Barooah isn't alone. The BJP's woman faces like Nirmala Sitharaman or Meenakshi Lekhi have broken the stereotype of the archetypal 'BJP woman worker'.
Barooah is also unaware of the BJP's role in such controversial cases as the Roop Kanwar sati of 1987, where its Rajasthan unit not only opposed tougher sati prevention laws but one of the men allegedly involved in making the 18-year-old widow burn to death on her husband's pyre went on to become a party MLA. "This is the new Bhajpa and I may be biased but I think Modi has a lot to do with it," says Barooah.
Her colleague Sandeep Dixit, a fund manager from Mumbai and also a volunteer, says he is surprised at the level of acceptance Barooah and other women colleagues have found within the party. BJP spokesperson Niramala Sitharaman says the party has unfortunately carried this image of being patriarchal when it comes to women's rights, just as there is a perception of the BJP being communal.
"It isn't important that they accept my lifestyle or I accept theirs. What counts for me is that common BJP workers have accepted me as I am. They have given me space and respected my views," says Barooah, who plans to return home after the election is over, convinced that she has contributed her bit to "make India better" instead of just sitting in her "drawing room sipping wine and criticising India and its politicians endlessly".
Sitharaman blames the media, particularly the foreign media, for perpetuating the BJP's stereotype of a Hindu nationalist party. "The BJP is and has been far more accepting to women than any other party, including the Left parties," she says. She cites as evidence the opposition within the CPM Brinda Karat faced when becoming the CPM's politburo member.
Sitharaman says it "repulses her" when people describe the BJP as a party that is somehow anti-women. "We were the first political party to give 33 per cent reservation to women in our organisation structure. Therefore, this stereotyping of the BJP puts me off. It repulses me," says Sitharaman, adding that volunteers like Barooah may help change the perception about the party.
This stress on women empowerment and women's issues is reflected in the BJP's election campaign as well, the party having realised that 49 per cent voters are women. Barooah says the Mission 272+ tries to reach out to youth, particularly young middle class women.
BJP functionaries say the focus on issues relating to women can also be seen in Modi's speeches. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate, in his speeches, talks at length about the need to create job opportunities for both urban and rural women. In his address last week at the India Foundation, Modi said efforts should be made to explore how homemakers could contribute to the economy and at a Lucknow rally reeled off data about lack of women's safety in Uttar Pradesh.
