Welcome departure accountability alive

Welcome departure accountability alive

Parties should not raise motivated accusations.

After much dilly-dallying and denial of the multiple accusations of sexual abuse made against him, minister of state of external affairs M J Akbar has resigned. His departure from the government is welcome: continuance of someone accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women, 20 at the last count, as a minister of the country was just not tenable. Akbar has chosen to step down and defend himself in the courts as a private citizen. This has two consequences. It tells women with long suppressed tales of sexual harassment by men in positions of authority that their coming out and laying bare their torment will not be in vain. More women will be encouraged to call out harassers. At the same time, it gives Akbar a chance to defend himself by the standards of law, complete with statutes of limitation, insulated from the force of public opinion.

That someone like Akbar, both as a minister as well as a former editor widely admired for his work as a journalist even by his critics, has not been able to use his position as minister to beat back accusations of sexual harassment will have a salutary effect on women’s right to work with dignity and security. Akbar’s public defence — that the charges against him have been politically motivated, and are “baseless” — will be tested in court, where Akbar’s lawyers have the right to argue his innocence. Akbar’s resignation could lead to politically motivated charges of sexual abuse against leaders of all shades. Parties should not go down this path. It would drag their own names in the mud, and undermine a genuine attempt by women to defend their personal liberty.

With his resignation, however, two things have thankfully become clear: one, when voices against sexual abuse speak out in a concerted manner, the noise becomes an audible statement that cannot be ignored and tucked away; two, that accountability — and not just for sexual abuse, but all kinds of abuse — can be invoked. Beyond this particular case, the need to be accountable should — and hopefully will — be the ‘new normal’ in public life.