Akbar fights back MeToo

| | New Delhi
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Akbar fights back MeToo

Monday, 15 October 2018 | PNS | New Delhi

Akbar fights back MeToo

Trashes charges, threatens legal action, gives no indication of stepping down

Union Minister MJ Akbar  on Sunday tried to brazen out the charges of sexual misconduct levelled against him by several women journalists and threatened them with legal action while giving no indication of stepping down from office. Akbar described the charges against him as “false and fabricated” and gave a  political twist to the whole controversy by suggesting that this was part of an “agenda” as the charges came a few months before a general election.

As many as ten women journalists, who served under Akbar when he was the editor of a national daily, have narrated horrifying tales of  sexual assault made on them by their boss. Soon after returning from a trip to Africa, the Minister of State for External Affairs issued a statement trashing the charges against him, saying accusations without evidence have become a “viral fever” among some sections.

However, with more and more women coming out against him and the Government facing flaks, Akbar has reasons to face sleepless nights.

Dismissing Akbar’s statement, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi wondered how the BJP leader could try to hide behind the allegation of a political campaign against him.

“I wonder how over a dozen women sharing their experiences can be claimed as political conspiracy? Bigger wonder is which constituency does his stepping down impact in elections? The only clear answer is that this government is actively protecting & promoting the sexual perverts,” Chaturvedi posted on Twitter.

The Congress has also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak his mind on the issue. “The PM’s silence is conspicuous. A PM who speaks on everything is silent on #MeToo. The silence raises questions on the dignity of the PM’s office. The country has been waiting for days for Modi to clear his stand on this,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said at a Press conference.

Describing the allegations of misconduct made against him false and fabricated, Akbar said, these were “spiced up by innuendo and malice.”

“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 in the statement.

Akbar said even journalist Priya Ramani who started this campaign with a magazine article a year ago did not accused him of doing anything. “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.

“This was admitted at the very inception. 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. Let me note examples. Shutapa Paul states, ‘The man never laid a hand on me’,” he said.

Akbar then referred to Shuma Raha and pointed out  that she too said he 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.

“Another accusation was made repeatedly by Ghazala Wahab, in an effort to damage my reputation. She claimed that she had been molested in office, 21 years ago. This is 16 years before I entered public life, and when I was in the 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 went on to add, “Wahab states that she 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. Sandal has also said she has never heard, in 20 years, anybody accusing me of any such thing.”

Akbar then went on to remind that both Ramani and Wahab kept working with him even after these alleged incidents. “The reason why they remained silent for decades is very apparent: As Ramani has herself stated, I never did anything. This is the reason why no one went to the authorities for so long, because I had done nothing,” he said.

Akbar ended his statement on threatening note saying,  “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.”

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