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Response to Anonymous Allegations through Twitter Post dt.05.Oct.18 posted by Ms. Deepanjana Pal.
I am responding late to the post on Twitter by Deepanjana Pal of 05 October 2018 written anonymously by her friend alleging that I had harassed her over the phone after she interviewed me and that I had subsequently spoken to her editor derisively about what she had written. I am not on Twitter and had no access to the post until it appeared in the media.
With no other context, timeline and explanation beyond the account of the anonymous person’s story, it makes it quite worrisome that anyone can name and be anonymous, with lack of answerability or fact. With no facts presented, I am at loss to address or respond to the stated accusation.
I hereby record that I am committed to Gender Equality. If I unintentionally and/or inadvertently have made the concerned individual feel uncomfortable, I would like to be offered the opportunity to explain myself instead of carrying forward this charade of naming and shaming.
My intentions have never been to offend or harass anyone. But if I have come across as such, then the matter should be probed fairly, and I will give it my full cooperation, or, this should be resolved through a comprehensive dialogue where I, too, am given the chance to put forth my version.
Writing in Quora.com, a young boy writes: My mausi (maternal aunt) was 20-odd. She came from a sleepy, small industrial town called Rourkela to New Delhi, to pursue journalism all by herself. She worked as a crime reporter for newspapers like The Patriot and Hindustan Times for close to a decade.
She took the latter to court in 2000 on charges of sexual harassment at workplace. It was one of the first instances in the national capital where someone had taken a famous media house to court on this count. Everyone dissuaded her from doing so, including famous social workers and women’s welfare workers (yes, women tried to dissuade her). She didn’t listen to any of them and pursued the case to a natural conclusion. She won the case in 2012. She got Rs 10 lakh as compensation from the case, which she gave towards a children’s fund at a Delhi orphanage.
The most embarrassing thing in the whole sequence of disclosures is not the disclosures themselves. (These are confident women mentioned here who would be the last ones to be COY about the incidents and “disclose” them only multiple years later. The male concerned would have been ticked off there and then, in each incident, I am SURE about that.) The REAL REASON for embarrassment, in my opinion, is hidden in the following quote from the article:
“A year after the #MeToo campaign around allegations of sexual misconduct against the powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein gained currency in the US, the movement seems to have touched a chord in India.”
AFTER this “MeToo” against someone in THE U.S.A., ..the movement touched a chord in India. If this sequence of confessions or revelations had originated in ISRAEL, or even ICELAND, would it have “touched a chord in India”?
It is this continued slavishness to “the affluent part of the West” that is truly embarrassing. Half the stuff reported here is fake — I am sure about it without knowing the truth!
I would reckon 90% is genuine. Some of the men have already apologised. Why did Dr Christine Ford wait for 36 years ? See the dog’s breakfast the powerful Republican establishment made of her completely truthful testimony. We should respect, support, encourage the women who are speaking up, some still too fearful to name the perpetrators. They have to go to work tomorrow morning, where some of these men are still in charge. The real benefit from this outpouring of pain and anger will accrue to the young women who will now be joining the work force. There is reason to hope that they will be more physically and emotionally safe.
“Completely truthful testimony”- my ass. She can’t remember any significant details and she has no corroborating witnesses. Moreover, it makes little sense that she didn’t report her experience 12 years ago when Kavanaugh was in the center of another highly public controversy about his appointment to a Lower Court.
You are right, 90% of these stories must have happened, but the percentage of women feeling “me-the-miserable-lass” must be much lesser than that figure.
Men always keep testing the waters, and women have always had a sixth sense to immediately know when, and who is trying to swim in their direction. And they immediately dunk the guy if they don’t like him. Few words would be shot out like Rafale aircraft’s missiles and the guy would go covering for cover.
My point is, attempted flirtations go on all the time in offices, and in most cases women are smart and confident types who take them as muted compliments. Only seldom, not as frequently as in 80 or 90 percent of the times but a miniscule fraction of that do they really feel “tortured and nervous”. They know how to put the guy in his place. We must remember that men who work in mixed-sex offices are not as boorish as SOME taxi drivers. They are cultivated enough to take a hint in most cases. If by a freak chance someone displays his passion to an embarrassing extent, then he honestly might be gripped by extreme passion via a vis that particular lady. Then that is just destiny. Such a man may make a nuisance of himself, and she may have to involve others to make him see the light.
I fully agree with you that, “…We should respect, support, encourage the women who are speaking up …”, but there is also something called ON THE JOB TRAINING. They will learn the ropes on their own very easily. In fact the ladies who have written about their “experiences” in this article, true or false or exaggerated, are doing greater harm to their younger “sisters” who might be on the verge of joining a job by frightening them. Offices are lovely work places!
Good that the dam has burst. It will hopefully make work places more safe for young women. A few cases, like Ms Tanushree Dutta’s complaint to Bombay Police, should be taken to trial. For the rest, the culture of impunity and immunity will be dented. Employers have a responsibility to ensure that the Vishakha guidelines are respected.
Response to Anonymous Allegations through Twitter Post dt.05.Oct.18 posted by Ms. Deepanjana Pal.
I am responding late to the post on Twitter by Deepanjana Pal of 05 October 2018 written anonymously by her friend alleging that I had harassed her over the phone after she interviewed me and that I had subsequently spoken to her editor derisively about what she had written. I am not on Twitter and had no access to the post until it appeared in the media.
With no other context, timeline and explanation beyond the account of the anonymous person’s story, it makes it quite worrisome that anyone can name and be anonymous, with lack of answerability or fact. With no facts presented, I am at loss to address or respond to the stated accusation.
I hereby record that I am committed to Gender Equality. If I unintentionally and/or inadvertently have made the concerned individual feel uncomfortable, I would like to be offered the opportunity to explain myself instead of carrying forward this charade of naming and shaming.
My intentions have never been to offend or harass anyone. But if I have come across as such, then the matter should be probed fairly, and I will give it my full cooperation, or, this should be resolved through a comprehensive dialogue where I, too, am given the chance to put forth my version.
Pablo Bartholomew – 08 Oct. 2018
Writing in Quora.com, a young boy writes: My mausi (maternal aunt) was 20-odd. She came from a sleepy, small industrial town called Rourkela to New Delhi, to pursue journalism all by herself. She worked as a crime reporter for newspapers like The Patriot and Hindustan Times for close to a decade.
She took the latter to court in 2000 on charges of sexual harassment at workplace. It was one of the first instances in the national capital where someone had taken a famous media house to court on this count. Everyone dissuaded her from doing so, including famous social workers and women’s welfare workers (yes, women tried to dissuade her). She didn’t listen to any of them and pursued the case to a natural conclusion. She won the case in 2012. She got Rs 10 lakh as compensation from the case, which she gave towards a children’s fund at a Delhi orphanage.
The most embarrassing thing in the whole sequence of disclosures is not the disclosures themselves. (These are confident women mentioned here who would be the last ones to be COY about the incidents and “disclose” them only multiple years later. The male concerned would have been ticked off there and then, in each incident, I am SURE about that.) The REAL REASON for embarrassment, in my opinion, is hidden in the following quote from the article:
“A year after the #MeToo campaign around allegations of sexual misconduct against the powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein gained currency in the US, the movement seems to have touched a chord in India.”
AFTER this “MeToo” against someone in THE U.S.A., ..the movement touched a chord in India. If this sequence of confessions or revelations had originated in ISRAEL, or even ICELAND, would it have “touched a chord in India”?
It is this continued slavishness to “the affluent part of the West” that is truly embarrassing. Half the stuff reported here is fake — I am sure about it without knowing the truth!
I would reckon 90% is genuine. Some of the men have already apologised. Why did Dr Christine Ford wait for 36 years ? See the dog’s breakfast the powerful Republican establishment made of her completely truthful testimony. We should respect, support, encourage the women who are speaking up, some still too fearful to name the perpetrators. They have to go to work tomorrow morning, where some of these men are still in charge. The real benefit from this outpouring of pain and anger will accrue to the young women who will now be joining the work force. There is reason to hope that they will be more physically and emotionally safe.
“Completely truthful testimony”- my ass. She can’t remember any significant details and she has no corroborating witnesses. Moreover, it makes little sense that she didn’t report her experience 12 years ago when Kavanaugh was in the center of another highly public controversy about his appointment to a Lower Court.
You are right, 90% of these stories must have happened, but the percentage of women feeling “me-the-miserable-lass” must be much lesser than that figure.
Men always keep testing the waters, and women have always had a sixth sense to immediately know when, and who is trying to swim in their direction. And they immediately dunk the guy if they don’t like him. Few words would be shot out like Rafale aircraft’s missiles and the guy would go covering for cover.
My point is, attempted flirtations go on all the time in offices, and in most cases women are smart and confident types who take them as muted compliments. Only seldom, not as frequently as in 80 or 90 percent of the times but a miniscule fraction of that do they really feel “tortured and nervous”. They know how to put the guy in his place. We must remember that men who work in mixed-sex offices are not as boorish as SOME taxi drivers. They are cultivated enough to take a hint in most cases. If by a freak chance someone displays his passion to an embarrassing extent, then he honestly might be gripped by extreme passion via a vis that particular lady. Then that is just destiny. Such a man may make a nuisance of himself, and she may have to involve others to make him see the light.
I fully agree with you that, “…We should respect, support, encourage the women who are speaking up …”, but there is also something called ON THE JOB TRAINING. They will learn the ropes on their own very easily. In fact the ladies who have written about their “experiences” in this article, true or false or exaggerated, are doing greater harm to their younger “sisters” who might be on the verge of joining a job by frightening them. Offices are lovely work places!
Good that the dam has burst. It will hopefully make work places more safe for young women. A few cases, like Ms Tanushree Dutta’s complaint to Bombay Police, should be taken to trial. For the rest, the culture of impunity and immunity will be dented. Employers have a responsibility to ensure that the Vishakha guidelines are respected.