The defiant Minister should understand that the complaints of sexual misbehaviour are coming from responsible women journalist when they were young who had worked or interviewed him at different times when he had the power to shape their future. He had misused this power to sexually harass them at a time when women were too timid to report abuses; also no forum to go to redress their grievances.
Thanks to the ‘MeToo’ campaign that the women all over the world have emboldened to make public the menace of these ‘predators’ and its impact on their social life. Akbar’s dismissal of the charges as some ploy for the political gains is frivolous. He must know that besides him there are a number of other lecherous luminaries named by the ‘MeToo’ have nothing to do worthy politics; the common denominator is they are sick in mind and behaviour towards women. He may defend his stand through the courts; but prima facie he must resign his post as a minister on moral grounds and stop embarrassing the government.
For all those asking for evidence, what evidence is a woman supposed to produce? Such crimes only have circumstantial evidence at best in this case, the testimony of multiple women is enough. Since Akbar is a minister and he is talking about initiating action against Wahab, but if it were a small person, what would have been your reaction to this issue. Now Wahab will be threatened of dire consequences, she would issue a statement denying all the allegations.
Akbar should have looked the journalists in the eye and spoken these words to them when they were questioning him at the airport. Saying it in a written statement shows his conscience is not clean. But still, it also shows that he is not a hardened politician yet, otherwise, he could have easily spoken a hundred lies with a straight face, with a smile to boot.
Another argument that why these women did not complain so far, is also a weak argument in my opinion. If a witness is allowed to turn hostile, then why is the reverse of turning hostile not be allowed by the law? All these ‘Akbar type of guys’ who are facing the music now will be proven guilty for “not being able to explain the “discontinuity” in their subordinates “Career Graph”. So, guys, bow gracefully, and own up.
It is very disappointing by the manner in which this matter is being handled. One hopes he will not travel abroad to represent India. Delhi-based journalists might wish to consider if they will interact with him in any official capacity. The women who have spoken up are speaking the truth. If there are others with similar experiences, they should step forward.
The invitation extended through MeToo to “name and shame”, so far has proved to be a blessing to the society. The principle is that nothing should be done to anyone without his or her consent. But the remedy for that is not taking the law into one’s own hands by “naming and shaming” that is not true, but seeking justice in the court of law, as Akbar proposes to do. This deliberate short-circuiting of the established legal procedure must be strongly condemned.
Despite the fact, in 90s many poor women who were either molested or raped, raised their voices, registered FIR fought their cases in the court. Why these accusers remained silent, and suddenly they mastered courage and start to speak. Their silence shows that if anything happened like that then it was a mutual business of two individuals for the sake of their benefits. Otherwise, they would have spoken at that time or would have left their job. But nothing happened.
It is pertinent to mention that because of political differences, the image and career of anyone should not be spoiled. If the accusers are really speaking the truth, they should go to the court and produce their evidence there to get justice rather than to go to media and malign image of anyone without any proof under the cover of MeToo. The string of allegations by women and counter-allegations, or defence bids to be more precise, on the part of Union Minister Akbar notwithstanding, the investigation, as promised by the BJP President Amit Shah, should go to the core of the issue to unearth the truth for all of us to know the correct position.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
