Issue and Opposition: Territorial disputes between India and Pakistan over Kashmir witnessed armed friction across the Line of Control between the nations in 2017. While there were losses on either side, the opposition parties especially the Indian National Congress (INC) accused the ruling party BJP of incompetencies and inefficiencies in managing national defense matters at the borders. Such accusations might have been inspired more by political rivalry between the INC-led coalition United Progressive Alliance and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, and less from actual concern for India’s security. In this case, the INC and its allies condemned the central government for its inability to protect the defense personnel fighting at the borders and the Line of Control from infringement by the enemy nations. These allegations were prompted by aggravated Pakistani and Maoist attacks at the borders and the killing and mutilation of the dead bodies of two Indian Army soldiers at the border by the Pakistani Army.
Dilemma Action: In Indian culture and tradition, women wear bangles. In a highly patriarchal society, women are treated with pity because they are perceived as weaklings. India is no exception, although a lot of progress has happened in the past decade. Conforming to the gender stereotypes, if a man in India is asked to wear bangles, it implies that everyone believes him to be weak and incompetent. In this dilemma action, members of the Puducherry Mahila Congress (Mahila means woman in many Indian languages) announced that bangles would be collected from the public and sent to PM Modi and all other members of the NDA since they were unable to protect the Indian soldiers deployed at the borders.
Outcome: The dilemma action was meant to annoy and humiliate the Modi government and poke fun at the coalition members. It was successful in that. Some regional media covered the announcement but no concessions or policy changes took place because of this dilemma action.