By Sushil Kutty
With Sabarimala and Amritsar, MJ Akbar’s shame seems to have gone under the radar. As we walk through another weekend – time forfeited, they come and go so swift and quick, it’s a wonder they last – the dumped Minister of State for External Affairs must be preparing for the battle of his life. Caught in the eye of the #MeToo cyclone, MJ will be ruing his hands did not keep to themselves. Willy-nilly, they strayed to grab, squeeze and roam. Now, they’re in a saucy soup.
MJ has refuted the charges of sexual harassment levelled against him, incidents dating back 25-30 years, by young women he interviewed in 5-Star opulence and worked with in noisy newsrooms for several years. The avenging angels are regurgitating sexual encounters of #MeToo kind like they are in a hurry to get them off chests they alleged Akbar was too free digging eyes into. Having pushed him to get out of his ministerial coat, they now want his Rajya Sabha scalp. Naked in the deep end. And he doesn’t know how to swim!
The 20+ women journalists who have stood him up for the firing squad want to make an example of him – the face of the Groping Gang. There must be millions of #MeToo rogues, but like Stalin once said ‘the “death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of one million is a statistic”; similarly naming and shaming of a standout #MeToo perpetrator serves more than lining up millions and reducing them to a statistic.
That is why journalists choose to highlight one story among the many similar. It creates more effect. The one becomes the face. Akbar the journalist par excellence will approve. By choosing Priya Ramani alone to build his defence, the cornered author-politician is doing exactly that: Rundown one accuser and brand every one of them to the ground. Good strategy. Sound plan. His lawyers must have agreed and probably advised that singling out is the preferred tactic.
MJ Akbar is fighting what is called a “collapse of compassion”. On the face of it, he seems to have nobody on his side, but there is always a ‘silent majority’ who can be swayed if reasoning is made with logic. In emotional issues, cut and dried will come trumps when there is focus. MJ’s accusers, who don’t have much in terms of corroboration, will pile on him with numbers. He will have to single out to get a degree of compassion on his side or he will drown. It is all emotional for the women.
As far as MJ is concerned, Priya Ramani was the tipping point. She “remembered” more than the others. But for Priya Ramani stepping up the rest would not have come out. And Ramani did it much before #MeToo became the weapon of choice for sexually harassed women. The backlash Akbar is facing today is for past actions and while he didn’t “do anything” to Ramani, she is the tip of the sword aimed at his crotch, the “primary cause” of the backlash.
Psychologists pinpoint what Akbar is up against as “a dynamic called common knowledge.” A bunch of transgressed people are more likely to act against a transgressor when each one of the group knows that every one of them will act. Pressure mounts. Common knowledge is a winner. To quote, “The accusations were known, but it was not until a viral stand-up routine made them common knowledge that sexual predators faced consequences – Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby.”
MJ Akbar’s past behaviour is well known, now getting to be documented, too. But it is also only now that it’s being received in a way that puts the onus on him to prove his innocence. Akbar’s strategy is to reverse the perception. Pick one and account for many. That said, Akbar is up against the entire media fraternity. Assorted journalists in snow-white are blackening Akbar’s face, apologizing to Ramani & Co., for Akbar’s abuse of power, guilt-ridden “editors” bearing the cross. For years they remained silent and complicit, now they’re paragons of propriety.
Of worry, in the rush to be on the side of the #MeToo, journalists are forgetting that due process and presumption of innocence are guiding principles of jurisprudence, and journalistic ethics. Pronouncing judgement is now commonplace for journalists, media trials circuses where everybody is a clown sporting a tragic and hurt face! Sham come easy to media in these days of the inquisitive anchor. MJ has a fight on his hands, after all the groping they did in the past.
(IPA Service)
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