External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday ignored a question put to her on whether the government intended to take any action against her deputy M.J. Akbar, who has been accused of sexual harassment in the snowballing #MeToo movement.
The accusations date back to the time Akbar was working as a journalist and editor in a number of publications.
Swaraj did not respond when she was asked by a reporter whether any action would be taken against Akbar. Television footage showed Swaraj walking away without answering the journalist.
Akbar, who is minister of state for external affairs, is in Nigeria on a visit.
The accusations against Akbar first appeared on Twitter on Monday when he was named in a tweet by journalist Priya Ramani. Mint columnist and former Lounge editor Ramani named Akbar as the editor she wrote about in a magazine article a year ago in which she detailed what she said was an encounter with him after being called to a Mumbai hotel for an interview.
“We’ll get you all one day,” was Ramani’s parting shot in the article titled “To the Harvey Weinsteins of the world.”
The #MeToo movement in India has snowballed into a major movement after Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta accused former co-star Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. The movement has since engulfed many film celebrities and, more recently, media figures.
