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Ex-Union Minister MJ Akbar's defamation suit naming only Priya Ramani, one of the several women who have accused him of sexual harassment during his tenure at The Asian Age came up for hearing today.
Ex-Union Minister MJ Akbar’s defamation suit naming only Priya Ramani, one of the several women who have accused him of sexual harassment during his tenure at The Asian Age came up for hearing today.
It seems like a strange and ridiculous situation of sorts, that the accused in a sexual harassment row, called out by so many women in India’s #MeToo, has the audacity to charge one of those aggrieved women with defamation.
Priya Ramani has pleaded not guilty and asked for a trial. In a two hours long charged up courtroom drama, former Union minister MJ Akbar recorded his statement and was cross examined by Ramani’s lawyer senior advocate Rebecca John.
About 20 women journalists are ready to testify in court against MJ Akbar. Almost all of them worked at several levels as journalists with ‘The Asian Age’ where MJ Akbar was editor for a decade and a half. All these women have put out a joint statement in support of their ex-colleague Ramani who was the first to call out the then minister publicly on Twitter.
It has been alleged by Akbar that “the tweet used a language that was deeply offensive, malign, mala fide, in bad faith and a web of fabrication spun out lies.”
In the defamation case filed by him against her she has been accused of “intentionally putting forward fabricated allegations” to harm Akbar’s reputation, by him via his team of lawyers. Akbar, appearing before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, said the allegations made by Ramani affected his public reputation as well as standing within family and friends.
Ms. John cross-examined Akbar on details regarding Ramani joining The Asian Age, among others. However, Akbar responded to most of the questions as “I do not remember”, and in his statement went on a long elaboration of his journalistic career and to list the names of books he has authored and other achievements.
In response to this, quite a few of the twitterati spoke up on Ms Ramani’s behalf.
Barkha Dutt
Am in court in full solidarity with @priyaramani in the farcical defamation case MJ Akbar has brought against her. So far ridiculous detailing of books he has written and papers he has edited like that has anything to do with the grave #MeToo charges against him — barkha dutt (@BDUTT) May 4, 2019
Am in court in full solidarity with @priyaramani in the farcical defamation case MJ Akbar has brought against her. So far ridiculous detailing of books he has written and papers he has edited like that has anything to do with the grave #MeToo charges against him
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) May 4, 2019
Sona Mohapatra
I am #WithPriya Ramani as are all the women & men of #India who are fighting the good fight. The #MJAkbar saga of getting away with abuse of power, exploitation & serial predatory behaviour has to STOP. @IndiaMeToo is no flash in the pan protest, it is here to stay & transform.🔴 — SONA (@sonamohapatra) May 4, 2019
I am #WithPriya Ramani as are all the women & men of #India who are fighting the good fight. The #MJAkbar saga of getting away with abuse of power, exploitation & serial predatory behaviour has to STOP. @IndiaMeToo is no flash in the pan protest, it is here to stay & transform.🔴
— SONA (@sonamohapatra) May 4, 2019
Kiran Manral
Akbar repeats, over and over again, how his reputation was damaged by the accusation of SH. He lists in painstaking details the books he has authored, how well they were received, the positions he has held and what an eminent career he has had. — #MeTooIndia (@IndiaMeToo) May 4, 2019
Akbar repeats, over and over again, how his reputation was damaged by the accusation of SH. He lists in painstaking details the books he has authored, how well they were received, the positions he has held and what an eminent career he has had.
— #MeTooIndia (@IndiaMeToo) May 4, 2019
MJ Akbar had to resign as Union minister on October 17 2018 after a huge public uproar following multiple sexual harassment charges against him when the #MeToo movement took the Indian media by a storm. After this he had filed this private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani. She has accused him of alleged sexual misconduct around two decades ago, but Akbar has denied the accusations.
He still has a “verified” account on Twitter having about 131k followers and goes by the name Chowkidar M J Akbar @mjakbar.
The next hearing on the matter would be on May 20 when the cross examination will be resumed.
Author’s note: This is a developing story in focus of all women rights groups in the country and all political circles too, and will be updated.
Image source: YouTube
Pooja Priyamvada is an author, columnist, translator, online content & Social Media consultant, and poet. An awarded bi-lingual blogger she is a trained psychological/mental health first aider, mindfulness & grief facilitator, emotional wellness trainer, reflective read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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