oppn parties Lecher Shaming: #MeToo Picks Up In India

Story Of The Day

Second Test Against Bangladesh: India On Brink Of Victory
OPINIONS : Strongly Expressed

October 18, 2024

People Are Talking About

Rohit Warns Sarfaraz, Police Use It To Warn Two-Wheeler Riders

News Snippets

  • PM Modi says Congress is bent on dividing Hindu society for electoral gains and is trying to bulid a Muslim vote bank by keeping the minority in fear
  • Election Commission says Congress demands on Haryana are 'unprecedented' and it is rejecting the will of the people
  • INDIA bloc allies slam Congress, say it does not know how to win even sure-shot elections after its loss in Haryana. AAP dumps it in Delhi and will go solo in the nsuing elections
  • Rahul Gandhi says Haryana loss was 'unexpected' and the party is analysing the results
  • PWD takes over the 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow in Delhi and removes Delhi CM Atishi's belongings for trespassing. It argued that the house was not Delhi CMs permanent residence and once Kejriwal vacated it, a fresh application for allotting it to Atishi needed to be made
  • Centre gives nod to Rs 68000cr mega defence deals including building 2 nuclear submarines and buying 31 Predator drones
  • US government considers asking a federal court to direct Google to sell some of its businesses which will effectively break up the company
  • Finance minister Nirmala Sithraman said that the carbon tax proposed by the EU is unilateral and arbitrary
  • The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI held rates for the 10th consecutive cycle but changed its stance from 'withdrawal of accommodation' to neutral, indicating that all things reamining the same, it might consider lowering key rates in the next review
  • Stocks turn red again on Wednesday: Sensex loses 167 points to 81467 and Nifty 31 points to 24981
  • Asian TT: Despite losing to Japan 1-3 in the semis, the Indian women's team defied rankings and won a historic bronze medal
  • 2nd T20: India score 221/9 powered by a scintillating 74 (34 balls) by Nitish Reddy and a blistering 53 (29balls) by Rinku Singh
  • 2nd T20 versus Bangladesh: Nitish Reddy and Rinku Singh shine with the bat as India thrashes the visitors by 86 runs to win the match and seal the series 2-0 with one match to go
  • Women's T20 World Cup: India thrash Sri Lanka by 82 runs, improve their net run rate considerably to jump to the second position on the group table and give themselves a realistic chance of making the semis
  • EC slams Congress for raising doubts about Haryana results
Ratan Tata passes away at 86. To be cremated with state honours. Calling him a "visionary business leader", PM Modi said he was "extremely pained by his passing away"
oppn parties
Lecher Shaming: #MeToo Picks Up In India

By Anukriti Roy
First publised on 2018-10-08 23:21:10

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Anukriti is a student who dabbles in writing when she finds time.
The #MeToo movement has really picked up in India after Tanushree Dutta showed courage to name Nana Patekar as the actor who harassed her 10 years ago during the making of the film “Horn Ok Plsss”. From author Chetan Bhagat to comic Utsav Chakraborty and from actor Rajat Kapoor to journalist Prashant Jha, all lechers are being brought out of the closet by women they had harassed. This is in no small amount the result of a junior actor like Tanushree (who was away from India for all these years) having the courage to come back and try to get justice.

Many people think that accusing someone of exploitation and harassment after so many years is not right. But as the minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, has rightly said ideally there should not be any time limit for bringing up such charges as the victim “never forgets” what happened to her and who did it and the “anger never goes away”. She also said that she was happy that the #MeToo movement had finally arrived in India.

There are many reasons why women do not immediately complain about lechers. The main reason is the shock. For instance, the person who was harassed by Chetan Bhagat would have been in complete shock to find that an eminent author like him could make passes at her. Since in most of these cases physical molesting is not involved, women perhaps think to let it pass. But now the thinking has rightly changed. Women have come to realize that mental harassment is in no way less and can be the cause of extreme trauma. Hence, they have rightly started reporting about people who talked to them in an inappropriate manner.

The excuses being given by those reported against do not wash. Bhagat says he was “passing through a phase”. Does that give him a license to make passes at women? Rajat Kapoor says he “slipped”, while Kailash Kher hides behind amnesia to claim that he doesn’t remember “any such act”. Apologies are fine, but what is the guarantee that these men will not pass through a phase, or slip, again. Or that there are not other women they harassed when they were in slipping mode? We have to wait and see who else is singed in the Indian version of the #MeToo movement and how many times.

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Turmoil In Mollywood

Turmoil In Mollywood

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

In Depth

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Editor's Pick

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.