Accusations of sexual assault have spread across India’s social media as the #MeToo movement took aim at prominent journalists, writers, editors and a comedian.
Scores of women, many journalists, came out this week with accounts of sexual harassment from colleagues and editors, accusing them of indecent remarks, unwanted touches, demands for sex, and the dissemination of pornography.
Many personal stories of anger and guilt, buried under years of silence, emerged after journalist Sandhya Menon recounted the sexual harassment she allegedly faced from two senior editors, KR Sreenivas and Gautam Adhikari.
Sonora Jha, who now teaches journalism at Seattle University in the United States, said she was also assaulted by Adhikari in 1995.
“Two months after I had my baby, Adhikari, then the executive editor of the Times of India, visited our Bangalore office. He said I should come to his hotel room to discuss flexible work hours if I would like that,” Jha told Al Jazeera.
“After I got there, he told me to relax, put my feet up, and lie down. I refused. He grabbed my face and forced a kiss on me, pushing his tongue into my mouth, trying to push me on his bed. I pushed him away and rushed out of the door,” she said.
Jha said as a 27-year-old then, she felt “shaken and uncertain of future”, but didn’t want to be known as “that woman who accused the TOI boss”. With a baby to look after, she decided not to pursue the case legally
