India’s #MeToo Moment Is Now A Raging Inferno
India is currently witnessing a massive awakening, with several women calling out their sexual offenders, mainly from the media and entertainment industry. In wake of the allegations, lawyers are now offering free legal assistance to survivors of sexual harassment.
More than a year after allegations of rape and sexual assault against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein first shook the world, female journalists and writers in India are naming and shaming Indian entertainers, newspaper editors and authors on social media.
The latest allegations began to appear on social media last week, then turned into a torrent. They began after a former actress, Tanushree Dutta, retold the story of how on a movie set a decade ago, her co-star Nana Patekar, a prolific, award-winning actor, had tried to change a dance sequence at the last minute so he could touch her inappropriately. A handful of Bollywood stars spoke out in support of Dutta, triggering a huge backlash on social media, with many challenging and trivializing her account of the incident.
And then the floodgates opened.
A number of Indian women started naming and shaming well-known men. Among the first accused was a comedian, Utsav Chakraborty, who allegedly sent lewd messages to women and asked a 17-year-old girl for nude photographs. The accusation, made on Twitter on Thursday, prompted a flurry of denials from the comedian, followed by an apology Friday.
“It’s a little too late now but I am sorry. I really am. The past 24 hours were a crucible,” Chakraborty tweeted. “I faced a very scary personal truth. I can’t think of myself as a victim anymore. Please tell me what to do now. How to make things right? I don’t want anyone to be hurt anymore.
A comedy group that Chakraborty worked with, All India Bakchod, popularly known as AIB, issued a statement severing ties with him. On Monday, the group said two other comedians embroiled in #MeToo allegations too would be out “until further notice.”
On Twitter, the accusations snowballed. Huffington Post revealed that a famous movie director, Vikas Bahl, had been accused of masturbating on a woman without her consent after pretending to pass out on her bed.
Bollywood superstar Kangana Ranaut also alleged that the Queen director made her feel uncomfortable many time while shooting for that movie. She also said she ‘totally’ believes the former woman employee at Phantom Films (the production company Bahl co-founded) who reiterated her allegations of molestation against the film director recently.
Bahl’s partners issued a statement saying they had previously been made aware of the allegations against him and were “ill-advised” by lawyers to continue working with him. Phantom Films subsequently closed.
Allegations poured out to female journalists in private messages and via online groups — many women were still too afraid to speak up.
Authors Chetan Bhagat and Kiran Nagarkar were accused of misconduct. Bhagat issued an apology on his Facebook page to the woman who accused him, saying he had “felt a strong connection” at the time. Nagarkar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The political editor of the Hindustan Times, Prashant Jha, was accused of aggressively pursuing a co-worker who had turned down his advances. On Monday, Jha resigned. He did not respond to requests for comment. Gautam Adhikari, a former newspaper editor, was accused of forcefully kissing women without their consent. He too, did not reply immediately to a request for comment.
And now knocked on the doors of the Narendra Modi government after a journalist alleged that Minister of State for External Affairs and former senior journalist M J Akbar made sexual advances at her.
The woman journalist, Priya Ramani, shared an account from 1997 when she was a rookie in the media industry and Akbar was her ‘boss’. In a poignant article for Vogue in 2017 after the Harvey Weinstein incident broke open the #MeToo movement around the world, Ramani said that Akbar invited her into a hotel room in Mumbai around 7pm, when she was 23 and he was 43, for an interview and made uncomfortable moves towards her.
In arguably the most shocking installment of this sordid saga, the latest (at the time of publishing) alleged abuser to be called out is Indian film and television’s very own ‘sanskari babuji’ Alok Nath, who has been accused of rape and repeated sexual violations.
Veteran TV writer, producer and director Vinta Nanda, in a detailed Facebook post on Monday, has alleged that Nath raped her more than once 19 years ago after he was sacked from their iconic show Tara for misbehaving with its lead actress.
You Are Not Alone. Help Is Here.
India has been hyper-aware of rape and sexual abuse since a student was gang raped and murdered in New Delhi in 2012. The incident triggered nationwide protests and calls to make the country safer for women.
In the past few days, several legal practitioners on Twitter have been mentioning their respective jurisdictions, while coming out in support of harassment survivors.
Another Twitter account created a form to create a “support team” consisting of professionals ready to offer help and support.
If you have faced similar circumstances, and are now emboldened to take action, a comprehensive list of highly qualified professionals willing to extend support is available here.
Watch this Quint video showing Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen talking about the #MeToo movement.
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