Tharoor says India’s marital rape exception undermines women’s rights.
He calls the exemption for husbands a “travesty” needing urgent reform.
Tharoor also speaks on rising global hostility toward migrants.
Diplomat-turned-Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said India’s refusal to recognise marital rape as a crime continues to undermine women’s rights, despite the country’s otherwise stringent anti-rape laws. Speaking in Kolkata, he argued that the legal exception granted to husbands amounts to impunity for violence within marriage.
According to PTI, Tharoor told an audience at a programme organised by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation with the FICCI Ladies Organisation that he remained “shocked to find that India is one of the few democracies in the world where the case of a husband raping his wife without her consent is not treated with the seriousness as it should have been”. He noted that even with strong anti-rape provisions, the law still excludes sexual violence by a husband, which he described as nothing less than rape “violating a woman without her consent”. “Why should they (husbands) be exempted?” he asked.
He stressed that if a man forces himself on his partner “citing conjugal relationship”, it is a violation of law and an act of violence. PTI reported him as saying that the existing exception is rooted in “an outdated assumption that marriage is a sacred sacrament and that whatever happens within it cannot be classified otherwise”. He criticised successive governments for failing to address the issue, remarking that “even women ministers holding particular portfolios did not look into this aspect”.
Tharoor called the legal exemption a “travesty” and highlighted that it shields husbands even when a couple is separated but not yet divorced. PTI reported him explaining that “a lot of marital rape occurs among couples who are separated but not legally divorced”, including cases where a husband living away “returns whenever he wishes and forces himself on his wife and nothing can be done because the law still considers them husband and wife”.
He was responding to a question from a college student during a public interaction with his sisters, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan and Smita Tharoor, at Kolkata’s GD Birla Sabhagar. Reiterating his stance, he said the assumption that “marital rape” is somehow part of conjugal life is misplaced. “It is not part of conjugal love, it is violence,” he said, urging the audience to “stand up for rights of women” that continue to be overlooked.
The discussion also touched on rising hostility towards migrants in the US and Europe. Tharoor said the resentment has become “overtly hostile” and that xenophobia is now visible globally. “There is hostility to migrants… People feel their dreams are being thwarted by people not like them. That hostility is increasing and is also visible in our country,” he said. For young Indians heading abroad on scholarships, he advised: “Gain knowledge and then come back. Your city needs you. Your country needs you.”
Reflecting on political life, he thanked his family for their “tremendous, emotional support” and said it was essential “to be true to oneself” and to one’s values. “I always said there is no point in being a cookie cutter politician… Even if my values are not palatable, I never flinch,” he said.
Asked about his reputation for using uncommon English words, Tharoor responded, “I like to think I am a communicator with people and there is no point in communicating if they don’t understand you.” When questioned about whether he shows diplomatic restraint at home, he replied with a laugh, “I won’t say I am diplomatic at home,” adding that private spaces are free from the pressure of performing or “following party line” in every utterance.
(With inputs from PTI)
