Reductive relations | Mint

It’s routine for the political opposition to accuse the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using divisive tactics to distract people from real issues, like weak job generation. Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar this week sought to give his criticism of BJP policies a new social edge by drawing a link between unemployment and marriage rates. He cited his experience of having met an idle group of 15-20 men aged 25-30 years who said they were graduates and post-graduates but were still unmarried because, as they told him, they had no jobs and families wouldn’t let them have brides. This, he added, was increasingly being heard in rural parts of Maharashtra. By Pawar’s tone, it’s clear that he expected both sympathy for the bride-less men and blame for their plight assigned to policymakers. Yet, it’s unclear if either is warranted. Groom rejection could have varied reasons, and a one-sided version was all the leader had to offer. The assumption of jobs landing brides also reveals a sense of male entitlement. And while earnings may have a correlation with weddings, our marital trends cannot be traced to economic policy. That’s over reductive, even for politics.