India one of a few democracies overlooking marital rape: Shashi Tharoor

Diplomat-turned-senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday (December 11, 2025) said he became as soon as unnerved that India stays thought to be one of the well-known few democracies the build marital rape is never any longer seen with the seriousness it deserves, despite having stringent anti-rape regulations.

Speaking at a programme organised by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation in affiliation with the FICCI Girls Organisation, Mr. Tharoor said, “I am 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 identified that whereas India has exact anti-rape regulations, there are exceptions for husbands which is nothing but marital rape violating a girl with out her consent. “Why should they [husbands] be exempted?” he said.

“If one doesn’t appreciate his existence companion and rapes her towards her needs citing conjugal relationship that is violation of regulations and violence towards girls,” he added.

He said the original provision rests on “an outdated assumption that marriage is a sacred sacrament and that whatever happens within it cannot be classified otherwise.” “We think a proper law against domestic rape is massively necessary in the country. It is however sad that even women Ministers holding particular portfolios did not look into this aspect,” to forestall such atrocities,” he said.

Mr. Tharoor said the exception is a “travesty,” of justice and it gives impunity even in cases the build couples are separated but no longer yet divorced.

“A lot of marital rape occurs among couples who are separated but not legally divorced. You often see situations where, for example, talaq has been pronounced, the husband is living separately, and yet he 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 said.

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Mr. Tharoor became as soon as replying to a request by a female college pupil throughout a ‘tête-à -tea’ with him and his sisters, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan and Smita Tharoor, on the GD Birla Sabhagar in Kolkata.

Watching that there’s an implicit assumption that “marital rape” can also also be allowed interior a conjugal marriage, he reiterated, “It is not part of conjugal love, it is violence.” “We need to stand up for rights of women, which in many ways are being overlooked. We should speak out,” Mr. Tharoor said to thunderous applause of the target audience.

Asked about the alleged hostility in direction of Indians and other immigrants in the U.S. and Europe, he agreed that the “resentment has become so much more visible, so much overtly hostile.” “There is hostility to migrants, a xenophobia which is not just in the West but worldwide. 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.

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“For young people going to U.S. for scholarship my advice will be gain knowledge and then come back. Your city needs you. Your country needs you,” he said.

Thanking his sisters and family for the “tremendous, emotional support to negotiate through the rough tumble of political life,” Mr. Tharoor said, “The most important thing to be true to oneself. To watch your values your capabilities” in the chosen domain.

“I always said there is no point in being a cookie cutter politician. I believe and stand by my politics, of my ideas, of my values. Even if my values are not palatable, I never flinch. I never said anything I did not believe in,” he said.

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To a request about the conception that he communicates in distinctive, irregular English words, Mr. Tharoor said, “I like to think I am a communicator with people and there is no point in communicating if they don’t understand you.” Asked if he workout routines diplomatic restraint at dwelling, he quipped, “I won’t say I am diplomatic at home. There is no possibility of being under watch (when one is at home) whether you are following party line with every utterance and action when you are in the company of your near ones and not in public,” he defined.