Rising India Summit: Was Threatened That My Mom Would Suffer, Says Khushboo Sundar on Sexual Abuse by Father

Actor-turned-politician Khushboo Sundar on Thursday opened up about the alleged sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father when she was eight, saying she was threatened that her mother would be made to suffer if she spoke up.

Speaking at the News18 Rising India Summit on Thursday, Sundar, BJP leader and National Commission for Women (NCW) member, said the abuse stopped only when she started revolting against her father at the age of 15.

“It stopped when I started revolting against my father at the age of 15. I am 52 today. All these years, it has been in me. Trust me, anybody who’s been through sexual abuse… it remains very heavy in you. I feel so light, so comfortable that it’s finally out. You don’t feel that you are carrying a burden with you,” she said.

“I think now is the time when we need to speak up. If not now, when? Should we take it to our graves? I am late. During my time, I didn’t have the courage, I didn’t have the support, I didn’t the laws, I didn’t have the POCSO, I didn’t have NCW, I didn’t have any kind of social support,” she added.

Talking about how difficult it is for sexual abuse victims to come forth, the BJP leader said: “There was lots of responsibility on me which probably did not allow me to speak… I didn’t tell anyone about it. My family – my mother and three brothers – they all were oblivious to what was happening to me. I was petrified of speaking because I had seen my dad physically abusing… I have been my mom go through domestic violence. I was threatened that if I speak about this to anyone then my mom and brothers would bear the brunt. That fear kept me from speaking up…. But there comes a time when you say it needs to stop.”

Sundar also revealed that when she started revolting against her father, he left the family in the lurch.

The actor had first opened up on the subject earlier this month. “My mother’s been through the most abusive marriage, a man who beat up his wife, his children, sexually abused his only daughter. He thought it was his birthright, being a man it was his right to do so. And when my abuse started I was just eight-years-old and I had the courage to speak against him at the age of 15,” she had said.

“At 15 I thought that it was enough and when I started revolting against, rebelling…he just left us with whatever we had, literally left us in the lurch. we didn’t know where the next food is going to come from and he just left us went,” Sundar had recalled.

She said she was glad to have stood up against her father because “had he been in the family, I would not have reached so far.”

“If I could fight the man at home, I could manage the world very easily.”

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