What we need is a benevolent dictator…I’m glad that Modi has been elected as the PM – his autocratic style of governing is what the country needs now…He can set India straight… Anyway, who gives a s**t about democracy and individual freedoms when the country is going down the toilet? Do you think the poor care about whether they can elect the government or not? They are too busy trying earn enough to provide for their families…If you think I’m wrong then look at China – that country is something! It has sprinted way ahead of us…We need a government like that.”

“What???!!! ARE YOU CRAZY!!!”, I blurted out…Was my normally sane and intelligent friend out of her mind? I mean, yes, the poor are focussed on earning a living wage but how can a dictaorship – benevolent or not –  be better for them?

Like most Indians, I wanted change, but didn’t know whom or which party to support… Truthfully, I am not a big fan of Modi’s (now that he has the mandate, I wish him the best) as I think (like my friend) he is a bit autocratic and also am not too fond of his links to Hindu groups…

Nobody can argue with the fact that the way our country is run needs to change, and soon…But, India’s flirtation with autocratic rule in the 1970s was a disaster…As Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency, her political opponents were arrested, the press was censored and elections were postponed…Her goonda son Sanjay Gandhi ordered demolition of slums and forced sterilizations…Guess who the real victims of this regime were? The poorest classes, the ones who need the protection of democracy the most…No matter how chaotic our parliamentary system was at the time, it still provided them a buffer from the absolute power of the state – a state which could at any moment forcefully seize them from their homes or fields and drag them off to sterilization camps to have their you know what’s cut off..

The rest of the country (who apparently were the only ones concerned with democracy and freedoms) carried on with their lives as usual albeit with blander newspapers as long as they didn’t resist or shout out their opinions…In fact, these sections of society actually benefited because their work in government offices got done and buses and trains started running on time…

So, am I, a middle class Indian, too hung up on democracy? You bet I am…No matter how inefficient and corrupt our parliamentary system is, I prefer it a whole lot more than the one in China…

Most people, especially men, will say no…Why should they admit to being ‘unmanly’? They are physically stronger, can run faster, have more money and power – why on earth should they feel threatened by the inferior sex?

Elliot Rodger  is proof that a vast number of men feel threatened by women…They blame all their misfortunes and woes on them…Last Friday, Rodger went on a rampage stabbing his three flatmates to death before shooting dead two young women outside a sorority house and then killing a young man inside a local deli in the coastal town of Isla Vista near the University of California – Santa Barbara…This was not enough…He then drove around in his luxury car randomly shooting at pedestrians…At the end of it all, he committed suicide…

In a Youtube video that he had uploaded the day before, he describes his plans to shoot women and promises retribution for his “loneliness and frustration” (he was a virgin at 22) at never having had a girlfriend…

So, why did this young man kill all those innocent people and himself? Because he felt he had been cheated and hadn’t received his due…He was a man, in college, the son of a movie director, walked the red carpet with his father, drove a BMW and so, was entitled to sex and female attention – and when that didn’t happen, he blamed his problems on women…With all his spectacular qualities, he had never owned women, even one woman…

And why did he kill his male flatmates? Because he was jealous of their success with women…

“All of those popular people who live hedonistic lives of pleasure, I will destroy, because they never accepted me as one of them. I will kill them all and make them suffer, just as they have made me suffer. It is only fair.”

“I would have to kill my housemates to get them out of the way,” he also wrote. “In fact, I’d even enjoy stabbing them both to death while they slept.” (link)

In the few days since the incident, Rodger has become a hero – a fan page has started on Facebook…

After all this, the media coolly ignores misogyny in favour of mental illness…Yes, maybe he was ‘crazy’ but his actions were fuelled by his hatred of women…He killed because even though he was a stellar gentleman he had failed in life because of women…He thought women were laughing at him and therefore undercutting his very existence…He (his life) was threatened by women…