‘Beti Bachao – Save India’s Daughters From BJP-Backed Predators’

Suzanne Furtado, a designer, writer and entrepreneur based in Bangalore, says the Prajwal Revanna case once again exposes BJP’s misogynistic mindset. Her views:

Wish to know my opinion about the ghastly doings of Prajwal Revanna, the incumbent MP from Hassan, grandson of former prime minister HD Devegowda, inheritor of a powerful political family in Karnataka, now allied with the BJP, and backed by the country’s prime minister and home minister?

As a proud Indian, I can only say that this is heartbreaking, sickening, chilling! And, most of all, as a citizen who loves this country, deeply angering. How dare he be given a ticket to contest elections for our country, despite the prime minister and Union home minister being fully informed of his series of crimes and video-evidence way back in September 2023 itself? Are they okay with allying with a depraved man who has molested, abused, raped and filmed hundreds of women?

The answer is a loud and resounding YES, in capital letters. It’s now a shameful pattern of ten years of misogyny and horrific crimes against women, while the PM and his party openly favour offenders aligned with them like Kuldeep Sengar, Brij Bhushan Singh, Ankita Bhandari’s murderers, Ram Raheem, Bilkis Bano’s 11 convicted gang rapists and many, many others.

So how was he allowed to escape the country? Airport and visa authorities report to the central government. Would anyone undergoing a police investigation for such a long list of horrific crimes be able to leave the country without their help? Plus, the JD-S and BJP are political allies to boot for this Lok Sabha elections, so, undoubtedly, they would be equally invested in him disappearing from the country, and so quickly.

I feel perhaps Modi, and other decision-makers, imagined that they can simply handle the situation by not acknowledging it — going by the way they purportedly have with other similar offenders’ crimes in their party. They perhaps feel that their delivery on the ‘Hindu rashtra’ and promises like the Ram mandir will override and wash away all other issues for citizens, because of the ridiculous and eternal fear created by the BJP IT cell, its spokespersons and leaders, that ‘Hindu khatre mein hain’.

Revanna has made 2,976 videos. Are these hundreds of women, predominantly Hindu by faith, not in danger and pain, not deserving of justice, not worthy of the PM’s concern? Justice appears to be only sought when the criminal belongs to another faith or another political party.

As I have said earlier, yes, there is definitely a pattern. BJP’s ‘mother-ship’, the RSS, has always been openly misogynistic — there is nothing new about it. And, perhaps, those saffron echo chambers have drowned out any consideration for women over decades, conditioned to see them as powerless and voiceless. Whether they are from unknown faces from a minority community like the two Kuki-Zo women in Manipur, brutalised, paraded naked and molested publicly by a blood-thirsty mob, or, even when the women are from the majority religion.

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Besides, the long and difficult struggle of international athletes and Olympic medallists like Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat has proved that the deliberate pattern has been to ignore them, and suppress their voice, their identity, their dignity, their pain and tears, in favour of the government’s own political agenda so as to stay in power — come what may.

Will the Revanna case impact the Karnataka and national elections this time? I would say, most certainly, yes. The majority of people are waking up. Even the ones who initially got lured with the religious divide and rule tactics. And they have been waking up for some time now.

They are fed up of the lies, scheming, fear, hate- mongering, and empty promises of development. They want a government that can do its job, and have a tangible and immediate way forward for progress and prosperity, not another waiting period with blinkers on till 2047.

And, definitely, not a government that supports rapists and rewards criminals and sexual offenders. News reports on Revanna’s videos are deeply alarming and disturbing. There is even mention of a 68-year-old ‘ajji’ (Kannada term of affection for older, grandmotherly women), who was a maid in Revanna’s house, pleading with him not to rape her, not to film it, saying she has fed his grandfather and father!

And then to think that this criminal was given a ticket and the PM personally asked the people of Karnataka in the rallies to vote for him. This is so soul-shaking as a nation. How far can the hunger for power take one?

The ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign has met the same scary fate as Achche Din, SabkaVikaas, Amritkaal, etc. Empty, hollow slogans, empty promises. When it’s time to deliver, they come up with new promises, so you forget the previous ones. Accountability for citizens’ basic and essential issues, especially for women’s issues, even grave ones like these, is zero.

Whether it is Asifa, Bilkis Bano, Sakshi Malik, the Hathras and Unnao girls, Ankita Bhandari, the women of Manipur, and many more girls and women in this sorry list, this party prefers to protect its criminals. Mother India’s daughters are screaming, weeping, bleeding, suffering, burning — yet the saffron party and ‘Hindutvawadis’, who claim to be ‘sanskaari’ and ‘dharmic’, choose to openly garland rapists, feed them sweets, take out processions in their support and give them election tickets. I think the people of India know by now that ‘Beti Bachao’ will only work with the suffix – ‘Bhagwa Party Bhagao’.

As told to Amit Sengupta

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