MoS External Affairs MJ Akbar has resigned after several women journalists accused him of sexual harassment.
New Delhi: M.J. Akbar resigned as the Minister of State for External Affairs Wednesday over charges of sexual harassment.
Several women journalists had accused Akbar of sexually harassing them when he was their editor.
“Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity,” Akbar said in a statement.
He also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for giving him the opportunity to serve the country.
On 15 October, Akbar had filed a criminal defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani after she and 13 other women journalists had accused him of sexual harassment.
Also read: MJ Akbar sues Priya Ramani for criminal defamation over sexual harassment allegations
On the previous day, after returning from Nigeria, Akbar had released a statement saying the allegations against him were “false and fabricated”. He also said Ramani’s accusations and a piece she wrote about their first encounter were a “figment of her imagination”.
Ramani, in an article for Vogue last year, had talked about an editor who had invited her to his hotel room in Mumbai for a job interview and offered her drinks, asked her to sit beside him on the bed and sung for her. Ramani, on 8 October this year, revealed that the editor was Akbar.
The #Metoo movement has been raging across the country over the past 10 days with several women calling out comedians, journalists, actors and men from all walks of life for sexually harassing them – at workplace or elsewhere.
This should be the first step. There’s more he owes the women he tormented than just stepping off a position, and I hope the law acts quickly to decide the form of that payment. The world is watching, particularly given his portfolio, but also in spite of it.
Good decision!
A profound error of judgment not to have resigned the moment the storm broke. No need to have gone sight seeing in Equatorial Guinea, even as the wheels were set in motion with the legal team back home. The depredations took place when he was not part of either the party or the government, so there was no burden of the past to shoulder or justify. 2. Having invoked criminal jurisprudence, the die is cast. This case should become an enduring monument to the essential truth and virtue of the Me Too movement. It should proceed further with a full sense of responsibility and restraint, rigorous vetting of the large number of complaints that will come forward.
what??????!!!!!!