Speaker says he feels like a rape victim; male-dominated assembly laughs it off

Bangalore: Discussions related to the the audio clip released by CM HD Kumaraswamy, BJP MLA Shivanagouda Naik is purportedly heard telling Sharanagouda, son of JD(S) MLA Nagannagouda Kandakur, that Kumar was infact, bribed to to accept resignations without any opposition.

Kumar’s name came up repeatedly during the assembly debate. During the debate in the legislative assembly on Tuesday, speaker KR Ramesh Kumar said he was like a rape survivor who has to undergo the uncomfortable experience of retelling her traumatic experience repeatedly in a court of law.

“If someone asks her what happened, she says the rape may have happened once, but the questions in court raped me 100 times. This appears to be my situation,” he said. While the statemenr itself is undermining the traumatic experience rape victims go though, it was met with laughter in the male-dominated assembly . The 10 women legislators, clearly outnumbered by their male counterparts remained silent. Bharati Shetty, BJP Mahila Morcha president, said that she doesn’t believe women are equal to men and said women "don’t require" the freedom enjoyed by men.