Day of reckoning
Social media in India erupt with #Metoo complaints as women from various fields, including cinema and the media, out prominent personalities, including a Union Minister who has been forced to step down.
A CASCADE of allegations on social media of sexual harassment and sexual assault against prominent individuals has kick-started what has now come to be known as the Me Too movement in India. The accused, all well-known personalities, belong to almost every sphere of occupation, ranging from the media, entertainment, art and academia to the world of politics.
#Metoo began with the former Bollywood actor Tanushree Dutta making an allegation in late September against the film actor Nana Patekar. She alleged that Patekar had sexually harassed her on the sets of a movie in 2008 and that she had complained about it even then. Tanushree Dutta subsequently registered a formal complaint against the actor at a local police station. Patekar denied the allegation and threatened to sue her.
Patekar was one on a long list of alleged harassers who were to be outed by women. Soon, charges of rape were made against Alok Nath, a prominent television star of the 1980s, by Vinta Nanda, a television producer. Several other actors joined her in accusing Alok Nath of sexual harassment. Big directors such as Subhash Ghai and the Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu also found themselves in the firing line. But the turning point came when many journalists, including one former journalist, and some politicians were named as sexual harassers. The worst-kept secret of the media was out, and it was time to look within. Many journalists in middle level and senior positions were accused by their colleagues and co-workers of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour. A good number of them resigned on their own volition, others expressed contriteness and apologised to the women who they felt they had wronged inadvertently; in some cases, the organisations initiated inquiry proceedings. There were very few who brazened it out, one of whom included a prominent former editor, author of several books and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament.
M.J. Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs, one-time president of the Editors’ Guild of India and former editor of The Telegraph, Sunday and The Asian Age, was in the spotlight after he was accused by 16 women journalists of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and, in one case, action bordering on molestation. These women journalists gave graphic accounts of what happened to them more than two decades ago. The BJP MP was accused of sexually harassing them, some of them on more than one occasion, in office space and in hotel rooms. Not everyone claimed that he had physically molested them, which interestingly is his defence in a defamation suit filed by him against his first accuser. Yet Akbar’s behaviour, as per the narratives, verged on totally inappropriate behaviour not befitting a superior at work. There was no doubt about that. He seemed to have made each one of them feel distinctly uncomfortable with his behaviour and appeared to have misused his position in what was clearly an unequal balance of relations.
On October 11, when Akbar was away on a tour in Africa, his name surfaced. Soon, one woman journalist after another began narrating their experiences at work with him.