In my previous Editorial on the issue of Politicians and Sex Scandals – Part 1, I wrote about some infamous sex scandals which had given immense exposure by media. In my today’s article, I want to put some of the lesser known scandals by the politicians.
Raghavjee’s unnatural sex scandal
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Raghavjee, a veteran of Madhya Pradesh politics, has been accused of having unnatural sex with his servant.[/inlinetweet] A CD showing the then finance minister of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Madhya Pradesh government in compromising position with a man has done irreparable damage to the party. Raghavjee had to resign and the matter is now subjudice. According to Raghavjee, the man who has accused him of sexual exploitation worked part-time for him, occasionally massaged the minister’s arms and legs, and had quit a month ago.
However his 29-year old domestic help had a different story to tell. “He is in several extra-marital affairs with the wives of those who work at his official residence. I want to tell that he has done to other employees what he had been doing to me,” the 29-year old victim said while addressing the media at leader of opposition Ajay Singh’s residence.
Kerala’s ‘ice-cream sex parlour scandal’
In 1987, Kerala was rocked by a sex scandal known as ‘ice-cream sex parlour scandal’. The sex scandal came to light after a Kozikode based NGO filed a complaint alleging that an ice cream parlour was being run as a brothel and a number of girls were being sexually exploited there by powerful sections of the society including politicians, judicial officers and other VIPs.
P K Kunhalikutty, a minister belonging to IUML leader, came under scanner in this case and had to resign that time. The case resurfaced in 2011, when a relative of Kunhalikutty alleged that he had helped him in wriggling out of the case using illegal means including bribing the witnesses.
BJP’s Sanjay Joshi’s scandal
Sanjay Joshi, the then general secretary of BJP, was hugely embarrassed when an audio cassette and a VCD, allegedly showing him in compromising position with a woman surfaced in 2005. Sanjay Joshi was a RSS prachark and he was known for his tough and no-nonsense approach. It was said that the CD was an outcome of intra-party rivalry.
Fingers were also raised at Narendra Modi with whom Joshi had fall out owing to sharp differences. The cassette had the voices of Joshi and the woman was talking about unfulfilled promises. Sanjay Joshi had to resign from his post. He was later rehabilitated in the party but the stigma never allowed him to regain his authority and command.
Jagjivan Ram’s son’s sex scandal
Jagjivan Ram could well have been the first Dalit Prime Minister of independent India, had his son not entrapped in a sex scandal that came to light when everything was going in favour of the former. Indira Gandhi was defeated in the Janata Party wave in 1977 and Jagjivan Ram was a favourite for the PM post as he had broken away from the Congress and had a good reputation as an experienced politician and able administrator. Unfortunately for the then deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, nude pictures of his son Suresh Ram were published in a magazine named ‘Surya’ that showed Suresh Ram in compromising positions with a girl named Sushma Chaudhury. What interesting fact was that the magazine was edited by none other than Maneka Gandhi, the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi.
Clearly, the pictures had more to it than what met the eyes. In those days, the pictures were taken on an automatic Polaroid camera. Jagjivan Ram’s political fortunes fell, the Janata Party broke into two, the Morarji Desai government fell and Charan Singh, with the outside support of Congress, became the prime minister.
Harak Singh Rawat-Indira Deori’s Paternity Issue
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Harak Singh Rawat, the then Uttaranchal minister of Congress party, was accused in 2003 by an Assamese woman of having fathered her new born child.[/inlinetweet] Indira Deori alias Jenny from alleged that the Congress leader had fathered her child only. Rawat had to resign in the wake of the allegation made. His position became untenable after a fact finding committee of assembly submitted its report that highlighted the firm allegation levelled by the Assamese woman. The political storm that followed her allegation lost steam when the CBI tabled its report to the court stating that the DNA of the child did not match with the minister.
Bihar’s Bobby
Bihar was rocked in 1982 by the murder of a girl, Bobby, who was working in the Bihar secretariat. The murder caught headlines after the names of a number of ministers belonging to the then Congress government came under scanner. The government at that time was headed by veteran Congress leader Jagannath Mishra. Under immense public pressure and media scrutiny, the case was reopened and the dead body of the girl was exhumed for forensic analysis. Some of the culprits were identified later on.
Shehla Masood’s murder
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Dhruv Narayan Singh, BJP MLA of Madhya Pradesh, was accused of having illicit relationship with many women and it resulted in the murder of one of her lovers[/inlinetweet], Shehla Masood, an RTI activist, who got eliminated through contract killers hired by Dhruv’s another lover Zahida Pervez. Masood was an activist working primarily on wildlife conservation, and also supported other causes like good governance, RTI Act, Police reforms, environment, women’s rights & issues and transparency. She sat on a fast in support of Anna Hazare’s ‘India against Corruption’ campaign. She was actively involved in raising issues related to the deaths of tigers in the various sanctuaries of Madhya Pradesh. Shehla herself was working for the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Trust, organizing events for them from Srinagar to Kolkata to Delhi.
Rajasthan’s Babulal Nagar scandal
A married woman of Jaipur has accused former Rajasthan minister Babulal Nagar of sexually exploiting her. According to the victim, the minister promised her a government job for her and then sexually assaulted her. The woman alleges that the minister threatened her to keep her mouth shut otherwise she will meet the fate of Bhanwari Devi.
MP’s Satyanarayan Patel’s CD scandal
A CD had surfaced in Indore of Madhya Pradesh that showed Congress MLA Satyanarayan Patel in a compromising position with a woman. Patel had blamed his local rival from his own party, Vishal Patel, of tampering with the CD and trying to defame him. According to Patel, this was a well-planned conspiracy against him on the eve of Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. A forensic lab found that the video of a female was interpolated with that of the politician to create the sex CD. Every time a politician is caught in a sex scandal, he blames his political opponents for hatching a conspiracy against him but this is not true in all cases.
Politicians and sex scandal is not new to Indian voters, but the question is that how to keep moral check on such people’s conduct?
(With Inputs From Various Sources)
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