MJ Akbar quits as union minister over #MeToo allegations

NEW DELHI: After 16 individual accounts of sexual harassment, a legal complaint signed by 20 women journalists and 10 days of holding out, minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar was finally forced to quit on Wednesday.

ET has reliably gathered that external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had let her discomfiture at Akbar’s continuance be known at the highest levels of the government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, is believed to have heard the views of four cabinet colleagues, including key women ministers, in the matter. Akbar, who became the first minister in the NDA government to resign for reasons of impropriety, is believed to have taken the call after a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Tuesday. Akbar's resignation was accepted by the President on Wednesday evening.


GROWING CLAMOUR KEY FACTOR
In a brief announcement, Akbar stated: “Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity.”

Party and government sources, who were monitoring Akbar-related developments in the #MeToo campaign, said the growing clamour, even after he announced legal action, was a key factor. The issue, sources said, was starting to harm the image of the government and the party, especially ahead of the election season. The junior minister’s resignation was, thus, the best option, they said.

Akbar’s name is one of the most prominent to have emerged in India’s #MeToo movement, which has gathered force over the past 20 days through posts on social media platform Twitter. The complaints against Akbar were by women who worked under him while he was the editor across media publications. These allegations range from how he used to interview candidates in his hotel room, make them allegedly sit on his bed and sip vodka to molestation, groping and sexual assault. Akbar, however, has described these allegations as “false and fabricated”.

“The discussion intensified on Wednesday because it was felt the issue was not dying down. It’s true that the top leadership both in the party and the government felt it was important to give him a chance to explain. But even after Akbar’s defence, it was felt that the allegations were only increasing and it was fast becoming a narrative against the government,” a top source told ET. Also, an official said, some of the accusations that had come out, from welcoming women in a bathrobe to kissing them forcibly, were turning out to be “an embarrassment for the government”.

The initial call was to let Akbar return from Africa, where he was on an official trip when the spate of allegations began to surface, and put up his defence. However, after the campaign showed no signs of ebbing, it was conveyed to him on Wednesday, that he must do the “right thing”. In fact, in the last few days, even the RSS through a senior minister had conveyed to the party leadership that it was uncomfortable with the nature of accusations against Akbar.

On Sunday when he landed in India, Akbar was widely seen to have decided to ignore calls for his resignation after being called out by women who had worked with him. He had put on a brave face, even conveyed to his seniors that the allegations were plain lies and that the controversy will die as soon as the legal processes start. On Monday, Akbar had sued journalist Priya Ramani, the first of his complainants, for defamation, accusing her of “intentionally making fabricated allegations” to harm his reputation. The court is expected to hear the case on Thursday.

During his trip, the former MoS was in touch with a senior cabinet minister. He was also asked to be in touch with the same minister and inform him every day about the steps he was taking to manage the crisis. According to people close to Akbar, he was under pressure from the top echelons of the government to prove that the allegations against him were wrong. He had called them part of a political conspiracy and his legal team too was working towards identifying the “big conspirators”. But allegations like the one by US-based journalist Majlie de Puy Kamp, who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Akbar in 2007 when she was an 18-year-old intern at Asian Age, was seen as quite grave.

On Tuesday, over 20 working women journalists, three of whom head newsrooms, issued a statement saying that Akbar has refused to “acknowledge” or “atone” for his actions that have been the cause of “immense pain and indeed harm to many many women over the years”. Women who had complained against Akbar reacted positively to the news of Akbar’s resignation. Ramani, who was the first to post a detailed piece about her experiences with him, said, she felt ‘vindicated’ after the union minister resigned from his post.