#MeTooIndia: Minister MJ Akbar finally quits

new delhi — India’s fledgling #MeToo movement claimed its highest-profile scalp to date on Wednesday as a minister and veteran editor quit after at least 20 women accused him of sexual harassment.

M.J. Akbar, who became junior foreign minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government after a glittering journalistic career, maintained however that the barrage of allegations were false.

“Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations against me,” he said in a statement.

Allegations against Akbar snowballed last week after journalist Priya Ramani accused him of sexual harassment when the pair worked together in the 1990s.

Akbar was “an expert on obscene phone calls, texts, inappropriate compliments and not taking no for an answer,” Ramani had said. She said that he would often insist on conducting interviews and meetings in hotel rooms.

“As women we feel vindicated by M.J. Akbar’s resignation. I look forward to the day when I will also get justice in court,” she said on Twitter on Wednesday.

Akbar earlier dismissed Ramani’s accusations and said he would sue for defamation. But 20 other women have since offered to testify against him.

Another journalist, Ghazala Wahab, said Akbar cornered and pawed her when she was a junior reporter at the Asian Age newspaper in 1997. —

As women we feel vindicated by M.J. Akbar’s resignation. I look forward to the day when I will also get justice in court

Priya Ramani @priyaramani