{"id":303986,"date":"2018-10-10T11:34:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T11:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=303986"},"modified":"2018-10-10T11:34:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T11:34:52","slug":"metoo-movement-opposition-demands-akbars-resignation-following-allegations-of-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/metoo-movement-opposition-demands-akbars-resignation-following-allegations-of-sexual-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"#MeToo movement: Opposition demands Akbar&#8217;s resignation following allegations of sexual harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/metoo-movement-opposition-demands-akbars-resignation-following-allegations-of-sexual-harassment\/mj-akbar\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-303987\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-303987 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mj-akbar-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2018\/10\/mj-akbar-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2018\/10\/mj-akbar-502x420.jpg 502w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2018\/10\/mj-akbar.jpg 514w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The Opposition has demanded the resignation of M.J. Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs, following allegations of sexual harassment against him by a senior journalist in a tweet on October 8, when he was an editor, as part of the #MeToo movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Congress lawmaker, Jaipal Reddy reportedly said, &#8220;Union minister MJ Akbar should either give a satisfactory answer to the allegations or he should resign. We demand an inquiry into the matter.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">While demanding resignation of Akbar, Ghanshyam Tiwari, spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party, said \u201cThe allegations against Mr. Akbar are the Harvey Weinstein moment for India. The Modi government talks of beti bachao, beti padhao (save the girl child, educate her) but the people of India has built a movement which seeks justice for women. Mr. Akbar should resign.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Maneka Gandhi, union minister for women and child development, is the first BJP leader to call for probe against the former editor. &#8220;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,&#8221; Gandhi further said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe Minister concerned needs to speak as silence is not an option. Prime Minister Modi also needs to speak up,\u201d Congress leader Manish Tewari said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Akbar is yet to respond to controversy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Opposition has demanded the resignation of M.J. Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs, following allegations of sexual harassment against him by a senior journalist in a tweet on October 8, when he was an editor, as part of the #MeToo movement. Congress lawmaker, Jaipal Reddy reportedly said, &#8220;Union minister MJ Akbar should either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":303987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[5505,5506],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303986"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303989,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303986\/revisions\/303989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/303987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}