YES MINISTER, THE TIME’S UP

The snowballing # MeToo movement has put us on the path to inquiry, inquisition and introspection. Perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein from the entertainment industry were the first to be named and shamed. The response from the ' Woods' of Holly, Bolly and Kolly ranged from outrage to sorrowful acceptance, from outright defiance as in the case of Nana Patekar to deathly silence in others.

As in the case of Bert Kavanugh's nomination to the US Supreme Court in the face of sexual harassment complaints from his student days, things became very political in India too where the Minister of State for External Affairs, MJ Akbar, has been in the crosshairs after several women stepped forward to name him as a leading predator when in his media avatar as Editor of several prominent newspapers.

The silence over Akbar's case is most baffling as two of India's most powerful women in the Cabinet - Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman - are ducking

the issue and there has not even been a squeak out of the usually voluble Akbar. His day of reckoning cannot be far away as a government that swears by women empowerment must heed the hue and cry over a perpetrator being in its ranks.

Those named from the entertainment industry may have reacted differently, even defiantly. The media has, however, been most forthcoming about its own people named and shamed. The government must take a firm stand on the Akbar issue. Isn't it time he left the Union Cabinet?