Passport to Rape: How a politician accused of assaulting hundreds of women could ensure his victims stay silent
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After 3,000 videos of an Indian MP engaging in rape surfaced, society is ensuring the victims suffer in shame

In what is being called the biggest sexual assault and rape case in the world, Prajwal Revanna, 33, a member of the Indian parliament from the Hassan constituency in the southern state of Karnataka allegedly recorded himself raping women. Nearly 3,000 such clips have been circulated in Hassan and uploaded online.

Yes, you read that right: 3,000.

The women ranged from his 68-year-old family cook, to political workers, to government officials, and virtually all the women who worked for the extended Gowda clan – a clan headed by the fugitive’s grandfather, former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, who ran India from June 1996 to April 1997.

Incredibly, Revanna’s father H. D. Revanna has also been arrested on charges of kidnapping a woman and serial sexual assault. The younger Revanna, who some might call ‘a chip off the old block’, fled to Germany using his diplomatic passport (one that is issued to each MP) as soon as the videos were circulated. He was later suspended by his party, the Janata Dal (Secular), over the allegations. Indian officials have requested Interpol’s help to bring him back to stand trial.

The burden of Revanna’s perverted crimes, however, is being borne by his victims – the survivors whose identities have been unmasked because of the viral circulation of the rape videos. In India’s agrarian and patriarchal society, being a rape survivor is a bigger social taboo than being a rapist.

Police are unsympathetic to women who try and report or register a crime; hence, so many rapes are severely unreported even though the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2019 said a rape happens every 16 minutes. Trials are a nightmare, with the survivor subjected to humiliation and grilling. And afterwards, it is difficult for a family to get a survivor married off – an economic imperative in an impoverished milieu. Hence, families try to avoid the “stigma” of rape.

The misplaced sense of honor in patriarchal Indian society burdens the woman’s body as being the repository of the man’s honor. The Hassan victims whose identities have been unmasked have locked their homes and left in a desperate bid to avoid prurient gossip and prying eyes.

I spoke to a senior official of the Karnataka police for this column and he expressed frustration at the lack of cooperation from the victims.