How Karan Oberoi became the poster boy of India's #MenToo 'movement'

What: Karan Oberoi, a 40-year-old television personality (he is part of a boy band as well), known for his performance in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin (2003) and more recently, Amazon Video’s Inside Edge (2017), has been in the news for very different reasons. He was thrown into the limelight after leading a fairly obscure existence when a woman accused him of rape and blackmail. She alleged that Oberoi raped her in 2017 after falsely promising marriage.

On May 6 this year, Oberoi was arrested by the Oshiwara police in Mumbai and was granted bail on June 7. And, over the last few weeks, Oberoi has become the poster boy for India’s #MenToo “movement”, with his demand for “gender-neutral rights” making the rounds on social media.

How: Oberoi spent a month in jail, for a crime he says he didn’t commit. About a week ago, the woman who accused Oberoi of rape was arrested for orchestrating an assault on herself. On May 25, the woman claimed that two men on a motorcycle assaulted her and asked her to withdraw her complaint against Oberoi. She also claimed that the men threatened to throw acid on her if she failed to comply. However, a few days later, the police arrested the two men, who said they had been roped in for this planned attack and paid Rs 10,000 for the task. 

Why: This incident lent further momentum to Oberoi’s #MenToo movement about the need for “gender-neutral” laws. Actors like Pooja Bedi and his members from A Band of Boys came out in support of him. On June 14, Azad Maidan in Mumbai was witness to a dharna at which many men and a few women gathered to create “awareness about the misuse of law”. “When you say #MenToo, you are talking about gender neutrality. I am a strong supporter of #MeToo and a proud feminist. I believe in justice and equality. Yes, laws are being manipulated and there have to be some amendments to laws,” Oberoi said. He also said, “Men will be running scared of women, scared to talk to them, marry them, date them. That’s not the society we aspire for. We aspire for a society that has equilibrium, peace, love and harmony. A lot of people are looking for shortcuts. Don’t encourage that.”

Now: The #MeToo movement, a global movement against sexual harassment and assault of women, continues to be necessary to give women the courage to come out and talk about their ordeals. As a collective, the movement has managed to expose powerful men in powerful positions, who had been taking advantage of an economically, socially and culturally vulnerable group since time immemorial. An unfortunate, exceptional case does not invalidate the need for #MeToo. But the #MenToo movement, simply put, is “backlash”, says senior advocate Vrinda Grover. “Whenever women, Dalits and other vulnerable and marginalised groups assert their rights, they are silenced.”

In this particular case, it may be relevant to remember that Oberoi was granted bail in the rape case against him; he has not been acquitted. Also, media reports that focus on the fact that the woman is an astrologer, or that she practises witchcraft and voodoo as Oberoi alleges, harks back to the age-old device of character assassination that questions a woman’s choices, morals, ethics and rationality so as to undermine her case. As for #MenToo, Indian men — indeed, all men — should understand that they don’t need truckloads of support to assert their rights. As Grover points out, “There is no gap in the law. There are enough laws that men can exercise if they have been wronged.”