#MeToo: MJ Akbar, Nath file defamation suits

New Delhi/Mumbai: The pushback against the #MeToo wave that has swept through the ranks of the powerful with scores of women narrating their alleged experiences of sexual harassment began Monday with Union minister MJ Akbar filing a criminal defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani.
In Mumbai, character actor Alok Nath moved a civil suit against writer-director Vinta Nanda, who accused him of raping her more than once during the making of her serial “Tara” in the 1990s, seeking a public apology and Re 1 as damages.
As the two men, at the centre of the growing storm against sexual exploitation in the workplace and outside, approached the courts with defamation suits, their accusers said they would not be cowed by the intimidatory tactics.
“By instituting a case of criminal defamation against me, Akbar has made his stand clear: rather than engage with the serious allegations that many women have made against him, he seeks to silence them through intimidation and harassment,” Ramani said after the minister of state for external affairs filed his case in a Delhi court.
“Needless to say, I am ready to fight allegations of defamation laid against me, as truth and the absolute truth is my only defence,” Ramani said. Accused by more than a dozen women journalists of sexual harassment and more while he was an editor, Akbar has filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani, who was the first one to name him.
The minister has accused Ramani of “wilfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously” defaming him and has sought her prosecution under the penal provision on defamation.
In his first statement Sunday after returning from Nigeria, Akbar responded to the demands for his resignation by terming the accusations against him “false, fabricated and deeply distressing”. On Monday, he was back at work, attending meetings at the ministry of external affairs.