New Delhi: The pushback against the #MeToo wave that has swept through the ranks of the powerful with scores of women narrating their alleged experiences of sexual harassment began on Monday with Union minister M.J. Akbar filing a criminal defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani.
In Mumbai, character actor Alok Nath moved a civil suit against writer-director Vinta Nanda. As the two men, at the Centre of the growing storm against sexual exploitation in the workplace and outside, approached the courts with defamation suits, their accusers said they would not be cowed by the intimidatory tactics.
Accused by more than a dozen women journalists of sexual harassment and more while he was an editor, Akbar has filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani, who was the first one to name him.
The minister has accused Ramani of “wilfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously” defaming him and has sought her prosecution under the penal provision on defamation.
In his first statement on Sunday after returning from Nigeria, Akbar responded to the demands for his resignation by terming the accusations against him “false, fabricated and deeply distressing”.
Several people, including lawyers, rallied around Ramani, offering help in meeting her legal expenses and some appealed on social media for crowd funding. “It is not about agreeing or disagreeing. He has presented his version,” BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said.
