I am not going to quit, I want the truth to win: Sexual harassment victim on RK Pachauri 

The 29-year-old research associate, who has accused TERI chief RK Pachauri of sexual harassment, has said that she will not quit the organisation. In an exclusive interview to The Economic Times, the woman said that Pachauri’s continued misconduct left her depressed and broken but she still lodged the formal complaint to make sure no else suffered the way she did in the organisation. She added that she didn’t have much faith in the organisation’s sense of propriety, but she will still not leave the job. “I have had enough… I know what I am up against. It is not going to be easy but I am not going to quit. I want truth to win,” she told The Economic Times. [caption id=“attachment_2122643” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  RK Pachauri. AFP.[/caption] Despite the woman furnishing  irrefutable proof in the way of messages and emails , Pachauri’s lawyers seem to have come up with a defence that argues that the woman lodged a false complaint to cover up shoddy performance at work. “Pachauri’s lawyers have said the harassment complaint was filed only after the woman was told she might have to move due to her “poor performance”,” reports ET. “I wanted to complain but I was scared because I was shocked by his audacity. He gave an impression that he is above the law,” the complainant tells the paper. She recollects how she would immediately try to leave work and go home when she spotted Pachauri in office. Though she put up with Pachauri’s advances for an entire year before she finally complained, her efforts should be highly lauded. Pachauri, after all, is a well-known and well-connected individual with no reported record of sexual misconduct. Only after she complained that another woman also developed the gut to speak up against him. Pachauri’s lawyers have also come up with the classic defence where it is implied that a woman resorts to allegations of sexual harassment when she has her own back to save or hasn’t been able to further her own sinister motive. Women, all too familiar with how patriarchal defence mechanism works, choose to remain silent on incidents of sexual harassment at work places in fear of defamation and loss of job. One can only hope that the step taken by Pachauri’s employee gives more women the courage to speak up against harassment at work places and more importantly warns harassers against pursuing their exploits. Read the complete Economic Times article here.