MJ Akbar won't quit over #MeToo allegations, warns of legal action against accusers

Questioning the timing of the allegations against him, MJ Akbar asked why the charges by women journalists he worked with had come up ahead of general elections.

M J Akbar: Union minister M J Akbar, who has been accused by several women journalists of sexual harassment.Photo: AFP

NEW DELHI: Union Minister MJ Akbar has broken silence on allegations of sexual harassment levelled upon him by several women journalists. Giving no indication of resigning from the government, Akbar, who returned home on Sunday from a foreign tour, termed charges of misconduct against him as "false and fabricated" which are "spiced up by innuendo and malice". Akbar said he didn't make any statement on the issue earlier because he was on an official tour abroad. "The allegations of misconduct made against me are false and fabricated, spiced up by innuendo and malice. I could not reply earlier as I was on an official tour abroad," Akbar said. "Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections. Whatever be the case, now that I have returned, my lawyers will look into these wild and baseless allegations in order to decide our future course of legal action," he added. Questioning the timing of the allegations against him, the former journalist said: "Why has this storm risen a few months before a general election? Is there an agenda? You be the judge. These false, baseless and wild allegations have caused irreparable damage to my reputation and goodwill." "Lies do not have legs, but they do contain poison, which can be whipped into a frenzy. This is deeply distressing. I will be taking appropriate legal action," he said. Talking about one of the accusers, Akbar said: "Priya Ramani began this campaign a year ago with a magazine article. She did not, however, name me as she knew it was an incorrect story. When asked recently why she had not named me, she replied, in a Tweet: Never named him because he didn't 'do' anything." "If I didn't do anything, where and what is the story? There's no story. But a sea of innuendo, speculation and abusive diatribe has been built around something that never happened. Some are total, unsubstantiated hearsay; others confirm, on the record, that I didn’t do anything," he said. Journalist Priya Ramani had last week identified Akbar as the unnamed editor whose inappropriate behaviour she had written about in an article in 2017. "Another accusation was made repeatedly by Ms Ghazala Wahab, in an effort to damage my reputation. She claimed that she had been molested in office, 21 years ago. This is 16 years before I entered public life, and when I was in media," he said. "The only office where I worked with Ghazala Wahab was that of The Asian Age. A part of the editorial team then worked out of a small hall. At the time concerned, I had a very tiny cubicle, patched together by plywood and glass. Others had tables and chairs two feet away. "It is utterly bizarre to believe that anything could have happened in that tiny space, and, moreover, that no one else in the vicinity would come to know, in the midst of a working day. These allegations are false, motivated and baseless," he added. Akbar said Ramani and Wahab kept working with him even after these alleged incidents of misconduct, which establishes, he added, that the two women had no apprehension and discomfort. "The reason why they remained silent for decades is very apparent, as Ms Ramani has herself stated, I never did anything," Akbar said. Several opposition parties have demanded Akbar's resignation. The Congress has said he should either issue a satisfactory explanation or resign. Some BJP leaders are of the view that the charges against Akbar would do no good to the party's image in the run-up to crucial state Assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, more so when the party has gone on an overdrive to highlight the Narendra Modi government's "pro-women credentials". (With PTI inputs)