November 21, 2024

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.