Official steps down over alleged misconduct
NEW DELHI — M.J. Akbar, India’s junior external affairs minister, resigned on Wednesday amid accusations by 20 women of sexual harassment during his previous career as one of the country’s most prominent news editors, becoming the most powerful man to fall in India’s burgeoning #MeToo movement.
Akbar said in a statement that he would “challenge false accusations” in a personal capacity, referring to a criminal case he filed on Monday against the first woman to accuse him.
Akbar, 67, first served as a lawmaker for India’s then-ruling India National Congress party in 1989-91. He then edited The Telegraph, The Asian Age and other newspapers and wrote several books of nonfiction, becoming one of the most influential people in the Indian news media.
He returned to public life in 2014, when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and was appointed national spokesman during the 2014 election that brought the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power.
Akbar maintained a low profile after joining India’s Ministry of External Affairs in July 2016 as its junior minister, representing India overseas at multinational conferences.
On Wednesday, he thanked Modi, who had remained silent about the allegations, for the opportunity to serve in public office.
In India’s conservative society, the #MeToo movement began belatedly but has picked up steam in recent weeks. Since September, Indian actresses and writers have flooded social media with allegations of sexual harassment.
The string of accusations against Akbar began when journalist Priya Ramani identified him on Twitter on Oct 8 as the unnamed editor that she had described in a story about newsroom sexual harassment published in Vogue last year.
Other women in the media have alleged that Akbar interviewed job candidates in hotel rooms at night; groped, massaged and forcibly kissed young interns and employees; and offered young women choice out-of-town postings so that he could visit them there.
Akbar on Sunday denied the allegations as “false, baseless and wild”.
The following day, dozens of people clashed with police outside Akbar’s New Delhi home, demanding his resignation.