Why Can’t Sexual Predators Just Say Sorry?

The BJP has made it clear by dumping MJ Akbar, the former minister of state for External Affairs, that the party is not going to take any risks with his continuance in office and thereby offending women voters ahead the upcoming Lok Sabha poll. The union minister resigned on Wednesday in the face of pressure from all quarters after showing a typical holier-than-thou attitude and even threatening to take all the women, who had the gumption to bring his demeanours into the public domain, to the court.

When a woman journalist who had worked with the ex-minister in his earlier avatar as a media Mughal had first charged him for sexual harassment, he was away on a foreign tour. Over the days, more than a dozen women, mostly his junior colleagues in the media, have accused him of similar misconduct on various occasions in the past. The BJP was in a hot spot as the Prime Minister’s much vaunted ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” campaign, which is all about empowerment of women and ensuring their dignity in society, was taking a hit with the charge of sexual harassment against one his colleagues. Even as Textiles Minister, Smriti Irani, and Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi had spoken against sexual harassment and exploitation of women in general, the party maintained a studied silence. The opposition Congress and the media organisations demanded the Minister’ resignation until he is cleared of the charges through an impartial probe. The minister in question, one thought would on returning home, issue a simple statement saying “sorry”. He did nothing of the sort and instead chose to launch a counter-attack. In fact, writer Chetan Bhagat who comes through as a gentlemen in his writing, has also taken a somersault after saying sorry to the victim as well as his wife. He is now trying to fight back by putting up a screenshot of a message from the #MeToo complainant.

In the West, offenders like Harvey Weinstein landed in jail and got stripped of their power and influence, the Cavanaugh case notwithstanding. One of the all time greats of the cinema, Woody Allen, was also forced to flee his country, apparently forever, to evade stringent punishment. In our country where women were supposed to be respected and even worshipped in the form of Goddess Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati etc., they continue to live as second class citizens and the object of male lust. Even their genuine grievances and trauma are given a short shrift.

Now that the most formidable obstacle has been removed from their path in search of justice and dignity, it may just be a matter of time before all the other predators named or hinted at so far would fall in line. The least they could do is to say “sorry”, instead of ‘suing’ the victims and extracting a compensation for sullied reputation of one rupee as character actor Alok Nath has famously announced.

MJ Akbar’s departure may signal the end of the beginning, hopefully…