Khushbu Sundar, an actor and a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW), has claimed that she was sexually abused by her father when she was eight years of age, news agency PTI reported. She has described this as the “toughest” thing.
Sundar said she started revolting against her father when she was 15 years of age. Her father left the family abruptly, Sundar said at the "We The Women" town hall organised by Mojo Story in Jaipur recently, a PTI report said.
"The toughest thing which took me long, not to forget, not to forgive but put it behind me and move forward was the abuse I faced as a child by my father. When a child is abused it scars the child for life," the report quoted Sundar as saying.
Sundar also said that her mother has been through the most abusive marriage. She said that her father was a man who beat his wife, his children, and sexually abused his only daughter, thinking it was his birthright, and that being a man, it was his right to do so.
Sundar said she had the courage to speak against her father at the age of 15.
She claimed that when she was 15 years old, she thought it was enough, and when she started revolting against the abuse, her father left them with whatever they had. She said they did not know where the next food was going to come from.
Sundar 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."
She added: “If I could fight the man at home, I could manage the world very easily.”
Sundar was a popular actress in Tamil cinema in the 1990s. She later entered politics. In 2020, she quit the Indian National Congress (INC) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).