Sexual harassment: Why #MeToo storm before Lok Sabha polls, asks M J Akbar

Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have decided to back Akbar despite RSS second-in-command Dattatreya Hosabale coming out in support of the #MeToo movement

Union minister M J Akbar, facing charges of sexual harassment that go back to his time as newspaper editor, has not only refused to step down but insinuated that the approaching Lok Sabha elections had a bearing on the allegations.

Speaking on Sunday after his return from his official visit abroad, he said he would take legal action against the women who had alleged sexual harassment by him.

Akbar’s holding out, sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, stemmed from the seeming support he received from the party leadership. However, the sources also said Akbar was likely to be dropped as minister.

Though there is little political cost to the BJP if Akbar goes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a track record since his time as chief minister of Gujarat of backing his ministers even when they have faced criminal charges and have been chargesheeted. For the time, Akbar has been given an opportunity to defend himself, party sources said.

Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have decided to back Akbar despite Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) second-in-command Dattatreya Hosabale coming out in support of the #MeToo movement. Party sources said support to Akbar had yet again underlined that Modi and Shah thought little of the mainstream English language media and did not want to be seen to have succumbed to pressure mounted by it.

Akbar is minister of state for external affairs and allegations against him have become an embarrassment with questions being asked in foreign capitals, a source associated with the BJP’s foreign affairs cell said. “He has been given an opportunity to defend himself. Let’s see how it plays out, but this is definitely embarrassing internationally,” the source said.

Akbar came to New Delhi after an official visit to Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea on Sunday morning, and issued a statement in the afternoon. Nearly 12 women have levelled allegations of sexual harassment against him in the past one week. They include journalists Ghazala Wahab, Priya Ramani, Shutapa Paul, Shuma Raha and CNN correspondent Majlie de Puy Kamp. 

It isn’t clear if these allegations would be investigated by the panel of legal experts that Woman and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has proposed.

In his statement, Akbar said the allegations “are false and fabricated, spiced up by innuendo and malice”. He said he could not respond earlier because he was on an official tour abroad. While he responded to some of the allegations, including those of Ramani and Wahab, he didn’t respond to those by Kamp. 

“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 wild and baseless allegations in order to decide our future course of legal action,” he said.

Akbar said Ramani began this campaign a year ago with a magazine article. “She did not however name me as she knew it was an incorrect story. When asked recently why she had not named me, she replied, in a Tweet: ‘Never named him because he didn't 'do' anything.” If I didn't do anything, where and what is the story? There is no story,” he said.

“But a sea of innuendo, speculation and abusive diatribe has been built around something that never happened. Some are total, unsubstantiated hearsay; others confirm, on the record, that I didn’t do anything,” he said, pointing to the example of journalist Shutapa Paul, who, he said, has stated, “The man never laid a hand on me.”

Akbar also pointed to the statement of Shuma Raha, who has also said that Akbar “didn’t actually ‘do’ anything”. “One woman, Anju Bharti, went to the absurd extent of claiming I was partying in a swimming pool. I do not know how to swim,” he said.

To Wahab’s allegation she had been molested in office, Akbar said this was from 21 years ago. “This is 16 years before I entered public life, and when I was in media. The only office where I worked with her was that of The Asian Age.”

“A part of the editorial team then worked out of a small hall. At the time concerned, I had a very tiny cubicle, patched together by plywood and glass. Others had tables and chairs two feet away. It is utterly bizarre to believe that anything could have happened in that tiny space, and, moreover, that no one else in the vicinity would come to know, in the midst of a working day. These allegations are false, motivated and baseless,” he said.

Akbar said Wahab claimed to have complained to Veenu Sandal, who wrote features for the paper. “Sandal has described Wahab’s version as nonsense, in an interview to the Indian Express.

Ms Sandal has also said that she has never heard, in 20 years, anybody accusing me of any such thing,” Akbar said. 

He said it was “pertinent to remember that both Ramani and Wahab kept working” with him even after these alleged incidents, and “this clearly establishes that they had no apprehension and discomfort”. He said the reason why they remained silent for decades was very apparent: As Ramani has herself stated, “I never did anything.”

“Why has this storm risen a few months before a general election? Is there an agenda? You be the judge. These false, baseless and wild allegations have caused irreparable damage to my reputation and goodwill.”

“Lies do not have legs, but they do contain poison, which can be whipped into a frenzy. This is deeply distressing. As indicated above, I will be taking appropriate legal action,” he said.