Two intimate video clips featuring Gujarat’s Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel with a woman, and holding a drink in his hand are being widely shared in the social media this week. The emergence of the videos in the middle of a heated election campaign raises questions about privacy, public image, defamation and political morality. Patel has called it a sign of dirty politics, an invasion of his privacy and “character assassination”.
Should sex tapes of politicians be part of political discourse and can they influence election outcomes in India?
The biggest news of the Gujarat election so far, has been the revelation that a 24-year-old man — a single Patel leader — has been caught on camera, having what appears to be consensual sex.
Standard denials have been issued by both sides. Patel denies that it is he in the tape and his political opponents deny having leaked it to the press. Both denials have been met with the willing suspension of disbelief, that characterises the Indian reaction to necessary lies — like the one that insists the RBI is still counting old demonetised notes.
Here are other sharp perspectives on the sex tapes and scandals influencing election outcomes:
Yashwant Deshmukh: psephologist
Jignesh Mevani: lawyer and Dalit leader from Gujarat
Ashwini Kumar: poet, author, and professor at TISS Mumbai
Shekhar Gupta: chairman and editor-in-chief, ThePrint
What is striking about the public reaction is the increasing number of politically unaffiliated Indians, who are now defending Patel’s right to have his privacy respected. They are also not keen to judge him or damn him for a consensual act of sex, which seems to be entirely legal. If anything, those who sought to politically profit from a backlash of outraged morality, are now being derided as prudes who are out of touch, with the mores of young Indians.
Who fornicates with whom, is entirely a matter for the parties concerned and their spouses, if any. An active sex life, with free consent, does not detract from the image of a virile, youth leader. His detractors on this score are, more likely to come off as frustrated losers, who are better advised to be more handy with productive arguments on genuine issues of public concern.
The true question that young India may vote on, is whether it shares the values and horrors that elderly uncles and aunts express, when the young have their fun. For the moment, public reaction to sex, lies and videotape episode in Gujarat, seems to be one of an unconcern that refuses to be distracted from the real issues of jobs and economy.
Sanjay Hegde is a senior advocate in the Supreme Court
I agree with Sanjay Hegde that bringing Hardik Patel’s private life into public view is in poor taste. But certainly those who did so do not come across as “frustrated losers”. I see neither frustration, nor a fear of losing in the act–it is politics, which has regrettably sunk so low. In the heat of an election campaign, it was perhaps too tempting to show an opponent as a debaucher, to besmirch his reputation. Those who did this deserve to be condemned, but they cannot be called “frustrated losers”.