Journalist accuses Union minister M J Akbar of sexual harassment

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JackSparrowcraz

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Posted: 7 years ago

Published: Oct 09, 2018

The woman journalist, Priya Ramani, shared an account from 1997 when she was a rookie in the media industry and Akbar was her boss'.

New Delhi: The #MeToo movement on sexual harassments has gathered steam in India and now knocked on the doors of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government after a journalist alleged that Minister of State for External Affairs and former senior journalist M J Akbar made offending 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.

Priya Ramani@priyaramani

I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didn't "do anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predatormaybe they'll share.

http://www.vogue.in/content/harvey-weinsteins-open-letter-sexual-harassment/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

6:15 PM - Oct 8, 2018

Edit:

Dear Male Boss,

You taught me my first workplace lesson. I was 23, you were 43. I grew up reading your smart opinions and dreamt of being as erudite as you. You were one of my professional heroes. Everyone said you had transformed Indian journalism and I wanted to be on your team. So, we set a time you could interview me at the plush south Mumbai hotel where you always stayed.

It was 7pm, but that didn't bother me. I knew you were a busy editor. When I got to the lobby, I called you on the house phone. Come up, you said. Err really? Maybe that's how celebrity editors interviewed newbies, I thought. Back then I didn't have the confidence to say: "No, I'll wait for you in the lobby, you pervert.

Turns out you were as talented a predator as you were a writer. It was more date, less interview. You offered me a drink from the mini bar (I refused, you drank vodka), we sat on a small table for two that overlooked the Queen's Necklace (how romantic!) and you sang me old Hindi songs after inquiring after my musical preferences. You thought you were irresistible.

The bed, a scary interview accompaniment, was already turned down for the night. Come sit here, you said at one point, gesturing to a tiny space near you. I'm fine, I replied with a strained smile. I escaped that night, you hired me, I worked for you for many months even though I swore I would never be in a room alone with you again.

All these years later the world has changed but your species is just the same. You still think it's your right to take your pick of the bright professional young women who enter YOUR workspace. You whip out your tired tricks for a new batch of women every year. "Watch me shower. "Can I give you a massage? "A shoulder rub? "I'm ready for my blow job now. "Are you married?

You're an expert on obscene phone calls, texts, inappropriate compliments and not taking no for an answer. You know how to pinch, pat, rub, grab and assault. Speaking up against you still carries a heavy price that many young women cannot afford to pay. Sometimes you are inconvenienced when the stories get out and you are asked to take a time out. Often, you are quickly reinstated. Why would you need to evolve, right?

Sure, there are many male bosses who don't think of us as their personal harem, but I haven't met too many who are ready to stand up with us and call out your misogyny. It doesn't matter. There are more brave women now who are not scared to point out the monster in the suit.

We'll get you all one day.
Priya Ramani

Edited by JackSparrowcraz - 7 years ago

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JackSparrowcraz

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Posted: 7 years ago

Prasanto K Roy@prasanto 17h

Replying to @priyaramani

Unbelievable consistency.

What a track record.

Never a variation.

Every female journo who's interviewed him: hotel room, bed ready, drinks on hand.

Shuma Raha@ShumaRaha

In this case, #MeToo. Year: 1995, Place Taj Bengal, Kolkata. After that encounter, I declined the job offer.

Shuma Raha@ShumaRaha

I must clarify, however, that he didn't actually "do" anything. But the whole experience of an interview sitting on a bed in a hotel room followed by an invitation to come over for a drink that evening, was rattling and deeply uncomfortable.

Thejaswi Udupa

@udupendra

This 1999 KP piece was about MJ Akbar (the pseudonym Editor the Great reveals more than it hides)

http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/dec/16kp.htm

Swati Chaturvedi@bainjal

My #MeToo moment: Founding editor of national paper forced himself on me, planted shame, fear, almost broke me - Firstpost

http://www.firstpost.com/india/my-metoo-moment-founding-editor-of-national-newspaper-forced-himself-on-me-planted-shame-fear-almost-broke-me-5337121.html ... CC @mjakbar

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Guinea

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Posted: 7 years ago

Union minister of state and not surprisingly very little media coverage

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JackSparrowcraz

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Posted: 7 years ago

Another Journalist Accuses MJ Akbar Of Misconduct, Recounts 2010 'Horror'

Shatabdi Chowdhury | Mumbai | Published: October 10, 2018

#MeToo campaign, which has taken the country by storm, has now reached the shores of politics with voices against Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar growing stronger by the day. A post by journalist Priya Ramani accusing MJ Akbar of misconduct has opened a floodgate of sexual harassment allegations against him. Now another scribe has come out and accused MJ Akbar of misconduct.

Founder-editor of NewCrop Shutapa Paul has in a series of tweets recounted the horror she faced in the years 2010-2011 when she was working with India Today Group in their Kolkata bureau. The alleged incident dates back to the time when MJ Akbar took up the reins of India Today. Recalling her first encounter with MJ Akbar, "a well-known, rockstar editor, Shutapa Paul said, "When #MJAkbar 1st came to Kolkata to meet the team at ITC Sonar, just as we were about to leave, he squeezed my elbow rather painfully and said that I should call him directly if I needed something.

Though, Akbar's behaviour was odd, Paul didn't think much of it then as she thought "he was only being encouraging as a boss, just to be proved wrong later.

Paul's account of MJ Akbar highlighted a pattern of behaviour of the former editor wherein he would allegedly insist journalists, mostly female, to come to his hotel room for meetings and having drinks with him.

"MJ Akbar insisted on meeting at ITC Sonar where he would stay. I was asked to come around 8 pm. In the exclusive members' only lounge, his personal waiter brought him glasses of whiskey and muri (puffed rice). MJ Akbar insisted that I drink too. What kind of journalist are you that doesn't drink and smoke?' wrote Shutapa on Twitter.

Shutapa Paul also alleged that while she wanted to talk to him about story ideas', hoping he would approve them', MJ Akbar allegedly chose to talk to her about "how journalists working together often grew close' and things could happen between them. He told me I should accompany him on his foreign visits. I told him about my mother, my recently deceased father & the committed relationship I was in at that time.

Paul, wrote in her post, that she thought when she told him about his relationship "it would change his line of conversation, however, to her dismay, the next thing Akbar allegedly said was even though she is no Cleopatra', he liked sitting and looking at her.

Paul then wrote that new few days were great for her and one day while discussing a possible cover story Akbar told her that India Today is moving towards convergence' and now journalists from across its various verticals (magazine, tv, online) could have their stories carried across platforms. As elated as she felt with the news, Akbar's next statement stumped her.

"Tor jonno korechi aami' (I have done this for you), he said in Bengali over the phone, wrote Shutapa Paul.

The scribe then went on to narrate her most traumatic encounter with Akbar, wherein he allegedly asked her to come to his his Nizamuddin East residence.

As recalled by Paul when she reached Akbar's residence, His home office was dark and there were old Hindi ghazals playing in the background. #MJAkbar didn't have much to tell me, again just sat silently & stared. I said I had a flight to catch, a friend waiting outside to drop me to the airport. Bf?' he asked. No, just a friend.

She also alleged that when she tried to leave his house, he allegedly gave her a hard hug', at which "she ducked whatever else could have followed and fled.

Paul then wrote that on his next visit to Kolkata, MJ Akbar asked her to come to his hotel room at 11 pm for a meeting, to which she said no.

Paul wrote after that refusal "from a reporter who was doing impactful stories, "she was relegated to being a nobody. The sudden development pushed her to depression, she recalled.

However, as recounted by Shutapa Paul, it was no end to her trouble, as a few days on Akbar asked Paul "to take the principal byline for a story where my contribution was only 10%. It was a controversial story with political repercussions. But since it was not the result of my investigations, I refused.

While concluding her post Shutapa Paul wrote that "to think that #MJAkbar is now more powerful than ever makes me shudder. But I draw courage from brave women everywhere and am now getting this monkey off my back.

At least 5 woman journalists have named MJ Akbar so far. It began with a post by journalist Priya Ramani, who called out MJ Akbar and accused him of inappropriate behaviour. After her post, several other women spoke out and accused MJ Akbar of sexual harassment. With her tweet, Ramani had shared a link to her 2017 article, wherein she accused him of behaving inappropriately. Though, back then Ramani didn't name him. However, in her tweet, she outed Akbar and also spilled the beans on why she didn't reveal his name when she wrote the article.

With growing allegations against MJ Akbar, the demand to expel him is growing. The government is yet to take a stand on the issue. Furthermore, MJ Akbar himself also hasn't replied to the allegations. MJ Akbar is currently attending India-West Africa conclave in Abuja Nigeria.

In her article, Ramani wrote than an editor of a leading publication insisted to interview her in his hotel room, where he offered her a drink and at one point even asked her to sit closer to him. Soon after, she called out Akbar on Twitter, several other journalists followed suit and narrated their stories involving MJ Akbar. Most of the women have detailed incidents wherein the former journalist would call them to his plush hotel room for interviews, offer alcohol and ask/say unwarranted questions and behave inappropriately.

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pallavi25

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Posted: 7 years ago

"We'll get you all one day" 👏
You GO, Girls, get them ALL, every single pervert, who used their power to molest/ harass women.

MJ Akbar was such a celebrated journalist of those times, even he turned out to be such a pervert 🤢 His modus operandi sounds exactly like Weinstein inviting all those actresses and company employees to his hotel room and then molesting them 🤢
MJ Akbar shd be made to resign from his ministry right now. So many accusations of sexual harassment of juniors shd not be ignored.

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576281

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Posted: 7 years ago

I hope this movement doesn't die down and picks up even more and all the women come together to corner these creeps!🤢

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Zennia

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Posted: 7 years ago

Originally posted by: cricketfan1
I hope this movement doesn't die down and picks up even more and all the women come together to corner these creeps! 🤢

And I hope, this forces a few men to alienate the perpetrators company

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JackSparrowcraz

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Posted: 7 years ago

Modi government is still silent on Akbar

Published: October 11, 2018

The lesser known MJ' has quit his job post-MeToo accusations, but the more famous MJ' continues to maintain a wall of silence to multiple accusations of #MeToo surfacing against him online. Maybe, it's because journalist Mayank Jain's employer Business Standard decided to act, set a standard, while the other MJ's employer, the Modi government, believes MJ Akbar and his "bottles of wine are stories with no legs to stand on.

Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar, when he was editor-Mighty apparently, was always ready to launch into affairs with nubile young aspiring journalists. Some of the advances he held forth must have fetched cooperation but the ones who are speaking up against him are those who "felt uncomfortable in his "predatory presence, those who were invited to his hotel room, the bed made just perfect to jump in, the music playing and the champagne bubbling.

But it was wine Great Editor' MJ preferred, say his accusers, to ply in his five-star hotel rooms. Grapevine and other vines say MJ is protected. Till the other day he was in Nigeria, attending to diplomacy. Around the same time, senior ministers in the BJP government were told to stay mum, especially EAM Sushma Swaraj, who diplomatically walked on like she had her earpiece home. Her minister-colleague Maneka Gandhi extended support to #MeToo but stopped short of naming Akbar the Great.'

MJ Akbar's picks for jobs, where he headed the newsroom, began to "share their encounters with Akbar after journalist Priya Ramani reiterated an allegation going back to October 2017 when she wrote, without naming MJ, he invited her to a hotel room in Mumbai for her job interview and made "uncomfortable advances. They were 20 years apart in age!

At the time nothing much happened but after the latest and current #MeToo surge in India, Ramani "named MJ and since then it's a deluge of "MJ predator stories one after the other. All of them from women who Akbar invited to his hotel room for interviews and made them feel "uncomfortable. He also "invited himself to the homes of female recruits with a bottle of wine in hand or "for a coffee! One single mother, who kept him standing on the door and wouldn't let him in, felt the singe thereafter in office when he allegedly made "life hell for her.

EAM Sushma Swaraj, asked if there will be an "internal investigation into the allegations against Akbar, reminding her that she is a "woman minister and therefore with more responsibility, chose to remain silent, which is the better part of cowardice. Talking of silence', Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the cases dated back to when Akbar was a journalist and not a political leader; that MJ should "come up and speak, and so should Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Silence cannot be a way out. It's an extremely serious matter and should be investigated.

Tuesday, top journalist-turned-politician/MP whom everyone is scared to name' was trending on social media and "so many of us have an MJ story was quoted ad infinitum by women launched into successful careers by MJ, who referred to him as "brilliant, flamboyant. Some women named hotels, others quipped about "rattling experiences.

But, mind you, nothing like he groped or pushed them on to a "bed already made up. One journalist said "Akbar would try his luck with anything that moved but was not particularly vindictive. "I think Akbar is slimy in many ways. There was a clear category of successful male behaviour that he fell within this was the trouble. People didn't even realise or think that there is anything wrong with this behaviour.

And with Akbar at the helm "there were always more young women than men in office, and it used to be called Akbar's harem with Akbar allegedly trying to "manipulate young, impressionable women. The majority accused Akbar of "obscenity with one coming to his defence, saying Akbar had been "one of the best bosses she ever had and she at least "never felt uncomfortable around him.

According to a report, the Ministry of External Affairs is "in the know of the allegations of Akbar's "unsolicited advances towards women journalists but instructions have percolated down right from the top that MJ be left alone. Apparently, PM Modi has confidence in MJ's sterling qualities and the rest will have to "assume.

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Journalist accuses Union minister M J Akbar of sexual harassment

Another Journalist Accuses MJ Akbar Of Misconduct, Recounts 2010 'Horror'

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