#MeToo: Congress demands MJ Akbar's resignation after sexual harassment charges pour in

"Union minister MJ Akbar should either give a satisfactory answer to the allegations or he should resign. We demand an inquiry into the matter," Congress parliamentarian Jaipal Reddy told a press conference.

As a part of the #MeToo movement, MJ Akbar, junior Foreign Minister in the government, has been accused by at least six women.

A journalist named Priya Ramani was first among them to raise her voice directly against the Minister.

On Oct 8, Ramani tweeted: I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didn’t “do” anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator—maybe they’ll share. #ulti https://www.vogue.in/content/harvey-weinsteins-open-letter-sexual-harassment/amp/#click=https://t.co/A2uHiJt9zd …"

Following the allegations, Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Ravi Shankar Prasad refused to comment on the matter.

However,Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said there should be an investigation into the matter,

"There should be an investigation. Men in position of power often do this. This applies to media, politics and seniors working in companies. Now that women have started speaking out, we should take it seriously," Maneka Gandhi told news channel India Today.

In her piece titled “To the Harvey Weinsteins of the world” published in Vogue India in October last year, Ramani had alleged that “Akbar is an expert on obscene phone calls, texts, inappropriate compliments and not taking no for an answer.”

“You know how to pinch, pat, rub, grab and assault. Speaking up against you still carries a heavy price that many young women cannot afford to pay,” the article reads.

While the article at the time of publishing did not mention the name of harasser in question, the woman who penned the piece confirmed her allegation and named MJ Akbar.

Soon after Ramani’s tweet, other journalists also accused Akbar of calling women to his hotel rooms for interviews, or making women feel uncomfortable by seeking to be alone with them.

Former Asian Age journalist Ghazala Wahab is one of the latest to share in an article in The Wire website her alleged ordeal under Akbar when she was a young recruit.

She wrote: "In my third year at the Asian Age, the office culture hit home. His eyes fell on me. And my nightmare began. My desk was shifted to just outside his cabin, perpendicularly opposite his desk, so that if the door to his room was left slightly open, I was face to face with him. He would sit at his desk and watch me all the time, often sending me lewd messages on the Asian Age intranet network.

"Thereafter, emboldened by my obvious helplessness, he started calling me into his cabin (the door to which he would always shut) for conversation, most of which was personal in nature. Things like my family background and how I was working and living alone in Delhi against the wishes of my parents.

"Sometimes, he would make me sit opposite him while he was supposedly writing his weekly column. The idea was that if he needed to look up a word in the gigantic dictionary placed on a low tripod on the far end of his cabin, he would ask me instead of walking across the room.

"The dictionary was placed so low that one needed to either bend down or squat to look up a word, with one’s back towards Akbar. Once, in the autumn of 1997, while I was half-squatting over the dictionary, he sneaked up behind me and held me by my waist. I stumbled in sheer fright while struggling to get to my feet. He ran his hands from my breast to my hips. I tried pushing his hands away, but they were plastered on my waist, his thumbs rubbing the sides of my breasts."

She wrote how it traumatized her and she even lost her appetite and would cry out in the parking lot or on the street.