#MeToo in India: By not asking MJ Akbar to go, BJP is on the wrong side of ethics, risks its equity with voters

It is hard to believe that Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar did not consult Prime Minister Narendra Modi before issuing a statement in which he said his lawyers will look into the “wild and baseless allegations in order to decide our future course of legal action.” The allegations Akbar referred to were charges of sexual harassment and molestation that 12 women journalists have levelled against him in the #MeToo campaign over the last one week. It was presumed Akbar would be made to quit because the allegations against him have generated terrible headlines. These have subliminally undermined the government’s own boast of the many measures it has taken to empower women, such as the Beti Padhao Beti Bachao programme. Obviously, no one expected Akbar to accept his guilt. Such a step would have made him susceptible in any criminal proceedings, given the nature of allegations that have surfaced in the unfolding #MeToo movement. No one could have been surprised by Akbar’s declaration , “The allegations of misconduct made against me are false and fabricated, spiced up by innuendo and malice. I could not reply earlier as I was on an official tour abroad.” [caption id=“attachment_5360171” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of MJ Akbar. Image Courtesy: Twitter/@mjakbar[/caption] When the shocking and scandalous disclosures were made in the #MeToo campaign, Akbar was away in Nigeria. In the world of instant communication, it did seem intriguing that the Modi government did not ask him to issue a statement from there. In hindsight, it seems the government waited because it wanted to construct a narrative that the charges against Akbar were a conspiracy hatched to weaken the ruling party. It appears the plan was for Akbar to provide ammunition, and for the government to fire them at its own convenience in the future. Akbar provided the ammunition in that part of the statement which read, “Why has this storm risen a few months before a general election? Is there an agenda? You be the judge?” It is relatively easy for Akbar and the BJP to spin the conspiracy theory because some of the allegations against him are indeed years old, dating to the time he was editor. They will, quite conveniently, ignore the indisputable fact that #MeToo spawned an ambience in which women felt encouraged to set aside their inhibitions and apprehensions to go public with stories of sexual harassment they encountered in the past. It wasn’t only Akbar who #MeToo sought to name and shame. Over the last one week, actors, directors, journalists, and even those in the corporate sector have been called out for being sexual predators. There cannot possibly be a conspiracy involving all of them. But what he and the BJP will portray is that their rivals exploited #MeToo to tar the government. The 12 journalists who called out Akbar’s alleged criminal conduct belong to the category of people whom the BJP describes as westernised, deracinated, liberal-secular. In the BJP’s view, their default mode is to mindlessly criticise Modi. It will say they have chosen to target Akbar because his Muslim identity is an argument against their charge that the BJP is anti-minority. In other words, it is their retribution against Akbar for daring to break away from the secular-liberal brigade. Perhaps the most damaging allegation against Akbar was of Ghazala Wahab, who worked under him in The Asian Age 21 years ago. She published her account in The Wire , which has featured several stories purportedly exposing the acts of omission and commission of the BJP government. Wahab’s allegation amounts to charging Akbar of criminality, precisely why he paid special attention to rebut her in the statement he issued. It sets the stage for implicating Wahab and The Wire in the great secular-liberal conspiracy against the BJP government. More significantly, among _The Wire’_s exposés against the BJP included one claiming that the company of BJP president Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, increased its turnover 16,000 times in the year following Modi’s ascent to power. The BJP was dismissive of the story. Jay Shah even filed a legal suit against the website. It would have been consequently a case of double-standard on the BJP’s part to deny Akbar the recourse to remedies that were granted to the Shahs. Akbar’s resignation could have also revived the memory of the Snoopgate, which was the name given to the story that two investigative websites broke in the months before the 2014 elections. It pertained to the surveillance of a young woman in Gujarat in August-September 2009. It was claimed that Shah had carried out the intrusive surveillance at the behest of a person referred to as “Saheb” in the audio recording the two websites had procured. The Saheb’s identity was never proved, but many commentators insinuated it was none other than Modi, who was then Gujarat’s chief minister. In the bruising electoral battle ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition, including the Congress, had wanted the surveillance of the woman to be probed. However, the woman’s father claimed it was a consequence of his request to the state government to provide her security. In December 2013, the woman told the Supreme Court that she was thankful to the Gujarat police for tailing her and urged the judges to block investigations for determining whether it was Modi who had ordered it. But vital questions still remained: Was the surveillance of an adult justified and legitimate? Who was the person who authorized it? What kind of security threat she faced? Action against Akbar on allegations dating back to two decades could have set a benchmark to treat all past cases involving BJP leaders likewise. In the weeks following the Snoopgate exposé, both Modi and Shah maintained a stoic silence on the issue. Once the controversy started to ebb, the BJP portrayed the Snoopgate as the Opposition’s dirty tricks to sully its image and abort its rise. For instance, on Nov 17, 2013, Modi said at a rally in Karnataka, “These days, attacks on the BJP have increased. Attacks on Narendra Modi have also increased. Don’t they see the waves created in the ocean?” Akbar’s statement, too, brands the allegations against him as a conspiracy. It gives the BJP and Modi the option to turn it into a signature tune of their campaign in the forthcoming Assembly elections. It will all depend on their assessment of the support #MeToo continues to generate.

As of now, the BJP believes that #MeToo reflects the concerns of a thin crust of privileged elite living in metro cities. They do not constitute the BJP’s support base. In fact, a substantial segment of them can be said to be ideologically opposed to the BJP, which is perhaps the reason why it is indifferent to their howls of protest in #MeToo.

But #MeToo is no longer confined to social media, from where it has leapt into print and TV. The allegations against Akbar have been inserted into the popular consciousness. The #MeToo campaign will stoke the anxiety of the urban middle and the aspiring lower middle classes. This is because it is increasingly the norm for women among these groups to work rather than stay at home. The allegations against Akbar were part of the large narrative of exploitation that women encounter at workplaces. Over the last week, women reported harassment from just about every sector. Akbar, rightly or wrongly, now symbolises the boss who uses power to prey upon women working under him. His continuation in office is likely to enrage the broadest spectrum of the middle class, which will think the BJP has failed to adhere to the ethical standard expected of it. Modi’s self-definition of himself is not to acquiesce under pressure. In his view, the wielder of power does not bend. He or she takes decisions at the time of his or her choosing. Modi will not want the Opposition to derive satisfaction at having claimed the scalp of a minister. It is also setting a precedent, a risky proposition given that the controversy around the Rafale deal continues to simmer. Modi has also drawn lessons from the experience of the Manmohan Singh government, some of whose ministers were compelled to resign on the charges of corruption that were levelled against them. Let alone enable the Manmohan Singh government take the high moral ground, the resignations only made it appear weaker, its credibility irreparably tarnished Modi assumes people will believe if he were to spin the saga of Akbar as a conspiracy aimed at denying him a second shot at power in 2019. It is always perilous to second-guess the narrative India will buy. And though these are still early days, it is not wrong to say that #MeToo has become inserted in an ethical frame. In such a scenario, it becomes necessary for the government to adhere to the normative standard. It is not simple to polarise the category of women on the basis of class, caste and religion. It is one thing to oppose the Supreme Court’s order against the Sabarimala Temple. It is quite another to be seen defending a man accused of sexually harassing and molesting women working under him. The BJP is on the wrong side of both ethics and #MeToo, perhaps out of its misplaced sense of confidence that it has the capacity to turn every crisis to its advantage.