WOMEN’S POWER AT PLAY, AKBAR GOES

In these highly political times when women’s power is manifesting itself in countless ways, the phenomenon has taken its toll of a senior political functionary with the movement against alleged sexual harassment of junior colleagues by Union minister M J Akbar in the days that he was a top-notch journalist culminating in his resignation. It is difficult to deny that by his aggressive response, slapping a case against journalist Priya Ramani and damning wholesale those who built up a crescendo on the issue, Akbar has disturbed a hornet’s nest. The number of those who joined the sexual harassment bandwagon has swelled in the last few days, making the challenge difficult to withstand in an environment in which women power has touched huge proportions, especially among the educated middle class. That Akbar apparently harassed the women journalists who worked with him in varying degrees is tough not to believe but how far he went in his misdemeanours is still a matter of speculation. With the Indian judicial process tortuously slow in delivering justice and the near-impossibility of establishing guilt in a case like this, the cases that were being filed would have gone on for years. It is just as well, therefore, that Akbar has stepped aside while the judiciary is seized of the matter. Clearly, Prime Minister Modi and his government were coming under increasing criticism for ignoring the outcry of so many former and current women journalists. This, at a time when elections in five states and subsequently to the Lok Sabha were round the corner could have tarred the reputation of the BJP government irreparably and proved costly to it in the elections. While sacking Akbar would have sullied his reputation further and fuelled the campaign against the government, the decision was to ask Akbar to quit while claiming high moral ground of conforming to the highest democratic standards. The shrill manner in which the electronic channels resorted to an overkill as they are prone to do made it seem that there was little else in the country to report.

Across the spectrum in Kerala which pride itself in being a matriarchal society, women’s power is manifesting itself in a different way. On the face of it, it would appear that women in general would be happy that the country’s highest court has allowed all women entry into the famous Sabarimala temple but there is huge opposition to the bar on certain categories of women on entering the temple being lifted and the Opposition is principally from women themselves. All said and done, however, there can be little doubt that women power is on the ascent. That, in general bodes well for the country at large though there are some riders to it.