Indian minister denies #MeToo claims

NEW DELHI: India’s junior foreign minister on Sunday dismissed sexual harassment allegations made against him by several women, mostly journalists, and ducked calls for his resignation as India’s fledgling #MeToo movement gathers pace.

M. J. Akbar ( pix), a veteran newspaper editor before joining politics, issued a rejoinder in which he said claims of sexual misconduct when he was a journalist were “without evidence”.

“These false, baseless and wild allegations have caused irreparable damage to my reputation,” he said in a statement.

“Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections. Whatever be the case, now that I have returned, my lawyers will look into these.”

Journalist Ghazala Wahab wrote a long #MeToo post for news website The Wire, claiming Akbar “sexually harassed and molested” her while she was working for The Asian Age, the newspaper he edited, calling her time there as “pure hell with repeated physical advances” by Akbar.

Akbar claimed that Wahab’s account was “an effort to damage my reputation”, describing the office they worked out of then as “a small hall”.

“It is utterly bizarre to believe that anything could have happened in that tiny space, and, moreover, that no one else in that vicinity would come to know.”

The minister also questioned the account of journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first to publicly accuse him of inappropriate behaviour. – AFP