This shocking tale demands a fair probe

If the allegations are proved true, it would be a story that emerges from a patriarchal and misogynistic society and politics which pays lip service to ‘Nari Shakti’ and the high status of women but treats them as objects of pleasure and commerce and subjugation.

The Prajwal Revanna episode of alleged sexual abuse and depredations of an unprecedented scale is shocking and deeply disturbing. The sitting MP and JD(S)-BJP candidate for Hassan has been accused of abusing a large number of women, and sleaze videos linked to him, reportedly copied from his own phone by his former driver, have circulated for about a week. He has fled the country after the videos came into the public realm a few days before the constituency went to the polls. Generally, such timing of a scandal being made public would have invited scepticism about the veracity of the videos and the charges. In this case, though, it has been widely noted that there has been no strong denial even from Prajwal’s own family, except allegations that the Congress is behind making the videos public. Instead, his own party has suspended him, perhaps in a bid to limit the damage the videos might cause to the JD(S)-BJP alliance’s chances in the next phase of elections in North Karnataka. The Karnataka government has filed a case against him and his father H D Revanna, against whom also there are charges of sexual assault, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the charges. The SIT has issued a ‘Look Out’ circular against the two. Prajwal’s counsel has asked for a week’s time for him to return to India and face the SIT. 

If the allegations are proved true, they might shock society, confronting it with the portrait of a young politician as a predator and a pervert out to exploit vulnerable women, keeping a record of his exploits and possibly blackmailing his victims. But it would be a story that emerges from a patriarchal and misogynistic society and politics which pays lip service to ‘Nari Shakti’ and the high status of women but treats them as objects of pleasure and commerce and subjugation. It would make for a telling tale of the sense of impunity and arrogance that marks the conduct of many a politician in the country, and Prajwal Revanna would be seen as a representative of a political class that considers itself above rules and norms. 

It does no credit to any political party to own him, to sponsor him or to be associated with him. The BJP state leadership had been well warned by its own district leadership about the risk that Prajwal Revanna’s candidature carried. But the party ignored the warning and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself campaigned for him. It is not the first time the BJP has put politics and winning above the honour of women and all its pious declarations about ‘Nari Shakti’. The Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh episode and how the party dealt with it is still fresh in public memory. The record of other parties is not much better, either. Some women have come forward with their complaints against Prajwal Revanna. Many others may not. The least that governments and parties should do is to investigate the charges, fix responsibility, take action and bring justice to the women.