Hostility towards migrants is rising in India: Shashi Tharoor in Kolkata

Kolkata: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who has recently introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to criminalise marital rape, did not mince words in Kolkata on Thursday. Calling India’s legal exception for husbands “a travesty,” Tharoor said, “I was shocked that India is one of the few democracies in the world where it is legal for a husband to rape his wife.”

He added, “I’m astounded that women ministers for this particular portfolio have defended such an exception. It’s astonishing and we should speak out openly against it.” For Tharoor, the issue is not about marriage or conjugal rights. It is about violence. “Marital rape is not about love or the conduct of a marriage. It is about violence. And violence is criminalised in our country for good reason because it affects another person’s bodily autonomy, agency and right to be free from harm,” he said.

The MP was in Kolkata for a talk show at GD Birla Sabhaghar with his sisters, Shobha Tharoor-Srinivasan and Smita Tharoor. Organised by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, most of the conversations revolved around the siblings and their equation. But Tharoor also reflected on the global trend he finds increasingly worrying, the rise in racism and hostility towards migrants. Having lived and worked abroad for decades, Tharoor said, “Hostility to migrants, increasing xenophobia and racism are occurring pretty much everywhere around the world.”

Tharoor also spoke about attitudes in the West, especially the US, changing. “Today, I would say that somebody in my sisters’ position might think twice about, for example, a choice to become American, when the resentments are so much more visible, so much more loudly expressed… especially to people who are visibly different. If you are European, you would not face the kind of hostility that brown people seem to be facing today,” he said. Both his sisters are based in the US and the UK respectively.

But the Kerala member of Parliament also made it clear that India is not untouched by these currents. “Let’s face it, it’s not just in the West. There is a fair bit of it today in our own country towards people who have come from elsewhere. When there’s a sense that people are competing for scarce resources, we try to distinguish who’s entitled to those more than others, and push people aside,” he said. Tharoor urged young Indians to gain global exposure but return to the country and help build India.