About two alleged women-touchers

One was born to a Rajput family in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh in 1957 The other was born to a German immigrant family in Jamaica Hospital in New York in 1946 Both have been notorious for decades living on the ragged edge between the lawful and the criminal flirting always with fame and ignominy They donrsquot know each other but their lives could be mirror images not always in the best wayDespite the rumours and scandals they have remained largely unscathed in the public eye They command large influential followings of fans who simply adore them and constitute important voting constituencies They both hold positions of power in the respective political parties of their countries and are regarded as rich famous and formidableTheyrsquore hefty fellows built like bulls Both have an interest in wrestling and have stood in the ring where one of them is a professional wrestler Neither could be credited with much humour and consider themselves above the norms and statutes that curb the excesses of ordinary mortalsMost interestingly both men currently face charges of inappropriate sexual behaviour with women The American fellow is being investigated for statutory rape and a pattern of random sexual assaults on women the Indian one is charged with touching the breasts and other parts of young women wrestlers under the pretext of checking their breathingAlso Read The Bajrang BJP doesnrsquot care forThe Indian is Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh president of the Wrestling Federation of India His American twin is Donald J Trump the 45th president of the United StatesWhen women like Vinesh Phogat a Haryana wrestler and E Jean Carroll a journalist point the finger at men like Brij Bhushan and Trump it makes history and becomes a landmark The public responses of Brij Bhushan and Trump to these women also open windows into how rich and powerful men think about women and how they defend themselves when accused of predatory excessesWhat did our accused say The public depositions and interviews of both Trump and Brij Bhushan are out Their strategies are eerily similar1 Itrsquos all lies Never happened Brij Bhushan said he would hang himself if even one allegation was proved true He claims the stories are politically motivated fabricated by the Congress in a preelection election year Donald Trump called the whole rape accusation a ldquohoaxrdquo and the judge a ldquopolitical operativerdquo financed by the Democrats in a preelection year to undermine him2 Why did they wait so long to report it ldquoIf there had been such an incident they could have gone to the sports ministry to the Sports authority of India SAI the police the media Why did they stay silent for so longrdquo Trump asked why Carroll kept quiet all these decades3 But Irsquom rich and famous Trump whined about ldquofalse accusations against a rich guy or in my case against a famous rich and political person thatrsquos leading the polls by 40 pointsrdquo Brij Bhushan ldquoOn my birthday 25 lakh people greeted me From every corner of the country I was getting requests for programmes And in my programmes there is no need to get an audiencemdash1020000 people just show uprdquo A rich and famous person they imply would never rape a women4 Wherersquos the evidence Brij Bhushan asked that Vinesh Phogat cite a specific incident with date time and other details Trump slammed Carrol saying ldquoShe has no idea what day what week what month what year what decade this socalled ldquoeventrdquo supposedly took placerdquo Carrol called a friend immediately after the rape and that friend has testified at the trialWhen asked if he still believed that ldquowhen yoursquore a star they let you do anything grab them by the pussyrdquo Trump replied ldquoItrsquos historically true Unfortunately or fortunatelyrdquoA few words first about rape and its coy cousin lsquosexually inappropriatersquo behaviour which pretty much covers everything else from groping and kissing to sexual assault Men who thrust themselves on women against their will usually get away scotfree chiefly because sexual violence goes unreported for reasons ranging from embarrassment fear of being shamed or reprisals and often a belief that the police will do nothing or worse side with the rapistBecause sexual predators seldom do their dirty work in public when a victim of sexual violence speaks up it typically becomes one personrsquos word against the otherrsquos For a woman reeling from an assault the gathering of DNA evidence like sperm from their bodies could be yet another traumatic invasion of her intimate bodyWe are presumed innocent until proven guilty But cases like Trump Asaram Bapu Harvey Weinstein and Brij Bhushan tell us that a sexual predator with money and power is a unique species of savage animal With every new billionaire titan revealed to be a sexual gorilla in private a case is being made that when you are wealthy drunk with power and consider yourself exceptionally above the law and norms then the law should make an exception for youmdashand deem you guilty by default until proven innocentYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper