....and men suffer

And he took his own life, leaving a more than a dozen-long suicide note and a video. From X to Instagram to legacy media, social media is brimming with the horrors of this tragic incident. The person under reference here has specifically mentioned five people in the abetment of his suicide, having crafted well-formulated arguments to prove the accuracy of his innocence and the intensity of frustration, annoyance, and shock he was to encounter. Blaming his in-laws and the judge: something to think about.

No sooner was Atul Subash married in 2019 than he had to face cases upon cases registered against him by his wife, dates upon dates given by the judiciary, humiliation faced in the meanwhile, and ultimately death. The person had been accused of having asked for a dowry, of mentally pressurizing his wife’s father to death, among other equally grave accusations. He has, however, refuted in a very logical way the inefficiencies and hollow nature of these allegations in his suicide notes and video. One gets shocked to see how a logical mind like his, not a case of depression, was forced to take his life.

Cases under different sections of the Indian Penal Code were taken recourse to by his wife to make his life a living hell. I am not going into details as to the provisions of these acts, as I am not qualified to comment on that. However, the problem is that if women have such laws to take refuge in, why don't men have the same? Agreed, women have been suppressed for long, whether that is the subjection to domestic violence, dowry-related issues, or Sati. However, isn’t it possible that women could capitalise on these laws in order to harass their husbands over a trivial issue otherwise resolvable through simple negotiations? Even the Supreme Court has time and again asserted the misuse of these laws. And Atul Subash has revealed the ‘women-can-weaponize’ nature of these special provisions. What does it point to?

On the one hand, we are bent on empowering women with regards to socio-politico-economic rights; on the other hand, we come across men suffering at the hands of women owing to the general recourse of the special provisions in the wrong way. Could it lead to the situation where men would suffer as did women in the past? The authorities have to take a serious note of it and not play dumb and deaf.

What makes one dumbfounded is that the women activists didn’t make a mere comment on the recent tragic death of Atul Subash. Even a few of them are raging with unbridled anger, chalking every wrong up to the person under reference here. Nasty comments, merciless thoughts, and unlimited happiness seem to be the godly bestowing they are experiencing and exhibiting at the moment. One wonders if we are living among humans, once defined by empathy, or beasts, characterised by venom spitting, destruction, and malevolence.

It’s not the only case that’s happening in this country; there are thousands of men suffering at the hands of women (toxic feminism). And we are not turning a serious eye to the anxieties and frustrations of men, both when he’s alive and dead. Atul Subash is a case in point.