From Prajwal Revanna To Brij Bhushan Singh’s Son: Will Crime Against Women Matter In Lok Sabha Elections?

A few days back during an interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he has ‘zero tolerance’ for the people like Prajwal Revanna, the current MP and NDA candidate from Hassan constituency of Karnataka. The grandson of the former PM and the JD(S) chief Deve Gowda, is facing allegation of sexually harassing multiple women. The videos of women as came out just before the state goes for its final phase of polls, it ensued political mudslinging.

 While the senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a scathing attack to PM Modi wrote that he campaigned for a ‘mass rapist’, the PM responded by saying that it was responsibility of Congress government in Karnataka as it is a ‘law and order issue’. However, Revanna has absconded to Germany in a diplomatic passport. Oppositions are of the opinion that the BJP was well aware of Revanna’s alleged criminal activities before they gave ticket to him.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate during a press conference showed a picture of the accused with PM Modi and said, “He (Modi) not only appreciated him but also sought votes for him (Prajwal) on April 14.” Notably, on the same day Modi addressed a rally in Mysuru and sought votes for him. There are also allegations that in February-March, the Karnataka BJP leaderships apprised the high command of Revanna and asked them to not give him a ticket. It was only in March that the JD(S)-BJP alliance was finalised. Gandhi has recently written a letter to the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharmaiah asking him to give compensation to the survivors.

 This is however, not the only case where the ruling party has been subjected to severe criticism for giving tickets to the people with tainted credentials. The recent decision of the party to give ticket to Karan Bhusan Singh, the son of Brij Bhusan Singh from Kaisergunj in the UP has again evoked controversies.

Last year, Singh, then the president of Wrestling Federation of India was accused of sexually abusing the women wrestlers. Renowned Indian wrestlers in numbers came on the streets in protest and at least for some time shattered the political rank and file of the party. Though he was not made the president of the federation anymore, his loyalist Sanjay Singh took the baton. Notably, the wrestlers during their protests in no uncertain terms said that no person from either his lobby or family should be given the charge of the federation.

The election of Sanjay Singh as the president of the federation whereas was not taken lightly either by the wrestlers or the opposition, the ruling party has got plunged into a new battle with nomination of Karan Bhusan Singh. Senior Congress leader Abbas Hafeez Khan has termed it ‘dubious nature of BJP’ and says, “The party talks about women empowerment but it gives tickets to people like Revanna and Karan Bhusan Singh. It is nothing but duplicity of the BJP.”

The wrestlers have also condemned the decision. Sakhshi Malik in a post on X wrote, “We all put our careers at stake and slept on the streets for many days in the sun and rain. To date, Brij Bhushan has not been arrested. We were not demanding anything; we were only demanding justice.” Lamenting the decision of the party to nominate his son, she asked, “Leave the arrest, today by giving a ticket to his son you have broken the morale of crores of daughters of the country. If the ticket goes to only one family, is the country's government so weak in front of one man? Only votes are needed in the name of Lord Shri Ram, what about the path shown by him?”

However, the BJP top brass is currently in a defence mood regarding the nomination of Singh’s son. A few days back, union finance minister and senior BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman while defending the party’s decision said, “Nothing is proven against Brij Bhushan. Nothing has been proven about it. Even if he is convicted, I would say that you want to pass the blame on to the son. Convicted people's children have been entertained by so many parties.”

Interestingly, last year a report published by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch noted that among 762 sitting MPs and 4,001 sitting MLAs that they studied, 134 have cases related to crime against women. The report also pointed out that BJP had the highest number (44) of MPs and MLAs against whom the cases of crime against women have been slapped. Will the decision of the party to field Revanna or Karan Bhushan Singh impact the electoral outcomes?