The Narendra Modi government seems to have delinked its fate from that of minister of state for external affairs M.J. Akbar. As outrage mounted over his defiance to respond to the allegations of sexual misconduct against him during his tenure as a journalist, Akbar chose to resign. The NDA government has cut its losses for now as President Ram Nath Kovind accepted his resignation.
After this mighty fall, the 67-year-old journalist-turned-politician will fight a lonely court battle to clear his name. Nearly three dozen women journalists, most of who had worked with him at various stages of his journalistic career, had spoken out or petitioned against his conduct. Akbar had already lost the battle of perception as the number of women he had allegedly “wronged” continued to rise. Even the technical issue of 97 lawyer signatories in the defamation suit against a lone woman turned into poor optics.
This is the first resignation from the four-and-a-half-year-old Modi government. At first, it appeared that the party and government were backing him as he filed a defamation case upon his return from a foreign tour. But as the political cost of retaining him as minister appeared disproportionate to his usefulness, the minister had to go.
Akbar said in a statement, “Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity”.
His emphasis on “personal capacity” was an attempt to delink his alleged transgressions from the image of the government, especially when the countdown for assembly and Lok Sabha elections has begun.
In his earlier statement upon his return from the foreign tour on Sunday, Akbar had termed the allegations false and fabricated. “The allegations of misconduct made against me are false and fabricated, spiced up by innuendo and malice....Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections. Whatever be the case, now that I have returned, my lawyers will look into these wild and baseless allegations in order to decide our future course of legal action”.
What appeared to have sealed the fate of Akbar is the mounting outrage against the minister on social media even from the women supporters of the ruling party. There is also the fact that the women ministers in the cabinet, including Smriti Irani and Maneka Gandhi, had spoken in support of the #Metoo movement. Though Akbar's senior Sushma Swaraj had maintained silence, many believe that she too could have made her stance clear as his continuance would have impacted the ministry's work, and even India's profile, abroad. Questions were also being raised over the silence of the external affairs minister and PM Modi.
Meanwhile, the #MeToo campaign received support from senior RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale.
The Akbar episode would not have played out well for the BJP and and the RSS for whom symbolism matters the most. As Vijayadashmi celebrations, due in two days, mark the victory over a character accused of harassing a woman, the current episode of a minister with a chequered past would have drawn parallels.
Politically, most of the parties were muted in their response as the allegations against Akbar were coming after several years of the alleged incidents. Political parties, including main the opposition Congress, faced dilemma as they were acutely aware that similar allegations against any of their leaders would have turned the situation ugly. After being indecisive for several months, the Congress had, on Tuesday, accepted the resignation of its student wing—NSUI chief Fairoz Khan—as he had faced allegations of sexual harassment.
The Modi-Shah combine had always refused to act under pressure of newspaper headlines. However, the Akbar episode threatened to go out of hand as the court battle would have been widely reported. In the defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani, 20 other senior women journalists, who had worked with Akbar, had asked to be heard in the court.
The political capital, which Modi government built among women, would have eroded had Akbar continued as a minister.
#Metoo movement has gained strength in the last one year. When it finally hit India early this month, it singed the media and Bollywood the most. Akbar was the most celebrated name to be called out in the media circle and the controversy escalated further as he was also a minister.
