Should Union minister M.J. Akbar be asked to resign on moral grounds after alleged accusations from women journalists ?

After the hype of the news of alleged women harrasment and sexual assault disclosures via Me Too campaign which include several women journalists and Bollywood celebrities the social media is full of antagonism and condemnation demanding action against all those celebrity actors and politicians who ‘ve been allegedly targetted and held responsible for these shameless acts of moral turpitude.

While a section of the media, especially the progressive media as well as the right thinking people of the country are shocked to learn that a veteran journalist, formerly the editor in chief of Asian Age and now the union minister in the BJP led NDA government, M. J. Akbar has been allegedly accused by about 14 women journalists in addition to several other celebrities of outraging their modesty while serving under him in Asian age years ago, they are equally surprised n anguished that instead of expressing his regrets or being in low profile, the latter had preferred to hire about 79 lawyers including the high profile and highly influential expensive lawyer Karanjawala to file the defamation case against a victim journalist Ms Ramani who was the first one to have exhibited her exceptional courage to come forward to highlight her plight of alleged sexual harrasment at the behest of the senior most journalist n union minister in the present government.

There is lot of disenchantment amongst the journalistic fraternity of the country especially those women journalists of Asian Age who had complained of alleged sexual harrasment by Akbar while serving in the newspaper owned and edited by him.

About 14 former harrased women journalists of Asian Age have now come forward in favour of Ms Ramani requesting the concerned judge to call them in the court during the first hearing of the defamation suit filed by M J Akbar, enabling them to testify before the judge in support of Ramani amd their complaints against the later.

Several news analysts say that filing of the defamation suit hiring such influential n high profile advocates is nothing but an effort to psychologically demoralise or silence the women journalists so that they do not pursue the case further and get bogged down morally.

But the courage of several women journalists ready to depose before the judge in favour of Ms Ramani n themselves have definitely raised the courage of Ramani.

While this is one aspect of the case, political analysts say that the party high command or the government not pressurising union minister Akbar to tender his resignation despite so much of controversy is also sending wrong signals across the country against the BJP n the NDA government which boasts so much of protecting the dignity of the women and broadly propagates its flagship programme “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” .

Remember, when the senior Congress leader and veteran journalist Mani Shankar Aiyyer used derogatory language against the prime minister Narendra Modi it was Rahul Gandhi, the Congress chief who shunted him out from the party without wasting a single minute but after so much of media hype and insult to the party not a single party leader and even prime minister has uttered a single word to condemn the episode or express their regrets.

There had been several instances in the past that several ministers have resigned on moral grounds on such ocassions or were asked to resign particularly on the matters of moral turpitude as is the case of union minister M. J. Akbar. No civilised society would ever tolerate such shamless acts of any minister especially when several women journalists have complained of their sexual harrasment in the public. What’s your take friends?