Thursday 18 October 2018

With Fall of Modi's Minister, M.J. Akbar, Terror of ‘Me Too’ Grips the Nerves of the Elite Rulers!

-Rajesh Tyagi & Ram Kumar Savita/ 18.10.2018


M.J. Akbar, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, in Narendra Modi’s rightwing cabinet, is finally forced to resign, but only after taking zig-zags from plain denial to intimidation to the victim women by filing defamation case against one of them in the Court. 

As the chain of disclosures by his victims continued to extend to one after the other exposure, Akbar was left with no way. Akbar, however, would continue to retain his seat in upper house of the Parliament, Rajya Sabha, to which he was elected from Madhya Pradesh Assembly on BJP ticket.

Akbar had joined BJP after leaving the Congress Party. Most of the allegations of sexual harassment and molestation belong to the period when Akbar was in Congress. Accusations show that Akbar was attacking women, mostly his subordinates and colleagues at impunity. Numerous complaints made by his victims against him had continued to fall on the deaf ears of those in power.


To one’s surprise, Akbar has no mass base or following in any part of the country. Then for what of his use or service the two national parties had been keeping him in their central cabinets at top posts? The answer to this question may reveal a more dirty picture where the criminal misdeeds of Akbar could be traced to the cabins of top leaders of the two parties.

While sacrificing its Minister, M.J. Akbar, in expectation of a cooling effect on the nerves of the public, the government has made it clear that the same would not be treated as a precedent for others. That means- no more sacrifices would be made upon allegations. This implies that the leaders of the bourgeois establishment are frightful of further intensification of the ‘Me too’ campaign, that has ruined Akbar’s political career and prospects completely and that may see innumerable heads rolling into moral devastation in coming days. 


This fear is so strong that when Maneka Gandhi, another Minister in Modi cabinet, suggested to form a group of Ministers to deal with the allegations of sexual harassment, again as a maneuver for damage control, the same was forthwith turned down by the cabinet.

‘Me Too’ movement, an outrage by the women victims of sexual harassment and molestation at the hands of the rich, elite and powerful, has created ripples among the corridors of the political establishment after at least 20 women journalists accused 
M.J. Akbar, the sitting Minister of Modi cabinet, of molesting them on different occasions. 

Before this a series of elite celebrities from different walks of life were accused of such molestations. Top actors, directors and writers that include Alok Nath, Nana Patekar, Subhash Ghai, Vinod Dua, Suhel Seth, Chetan Bhagat among others, were accused by different women of indecent acts of one or the other kind.

Similar allegations of indecent behaviour were made in the not too distant past by young law interns against two of the Supreme Court Judges Swatantra Kumar and A.K.Ganguli, but nothing happened in those cases till date, for the positions and power held by the accused persons inside the state apparatus.

Tarun Tejpal’s case was an eye-opener and major revelation of the filth that is choking all channels of the society. As soon as Tejpal was accused by his young assistant of repeated molestations, a barrage of known feminists among others, whom Tejpal had promoted through his newspaper Tehelka, rallied themselves behind Tejpal. Together they indulged in fervent attempts to silence the victim girl. While Arundhati Roy maintained mysterious silence and refrained from making even a single comment against Tejpal, Kavita Krishnan in her response to a question by Ravish Kumar on NDTV, replied that no FIR be registered against Tejpal, as the victim did not want it. This turned to be a hoax as the as the victim was determined to get the FIR lodged and she lodged it despite tremendous pressure from all sides. Defenders and promotees of Tejpal, advanced the apology to their conduct on the ground that Tejpal belonged to the left. Tejpal belonged to the same left that these apologists themselves belonged to- the pseudo left.

Across the entire political spectrum, from left to right, the class of the rich and the elite, the ruling stratum of the bourgeois society, stands thoroughly exposed for its immorality, disgrace, and atrocious conduct.

‘Me Too’ campaign has ripped apart all false pretensions of morality in the bourgeois society, laying bare all the muck at its helm, accumulated over decades.

Harassers and molesters that seem to be in far big numbers than those who already stand exposed, are fearful of the cascading effect of the movement. All are afraid of the prospect of them being next in the chain of exposures.

Opposition to the ‘me too’ campaign is coming from all quarters of the ruling class. Inside the power corridors, there is more hidden than open opposition to the movement. The range of objections to the movement includes all sorts of fanciful arguments like- ‘mere allegations are not sufficient, they must be tried first in court of law’, ‘the accuser woman must give concrete proof of the allegations’, ‘why now and not before’ and so on.

The fury of the victims against their sexual exploitation and outrage of modesty by the bourgeois predators, is quite legitimate and salutary.

Patriarchal domination and gender-based repression of deprived sex, are the key components of capitalist societies in all backward countries as capitalist modernity has grafted itself upon the stem of medieval backwardness in these countries. Given this peculiarity in social structure, women are sandwiched between two plates of oppression- one that belongs to the medieval past, the other to present day modernity- both combined into a double yoke upon the shoulders of woman.

At each step, women face the double edged axe of oppression- the utter immorality of capitalist decay on the one hand and the pretension of sexual morality and hypocrisy on the other. While disarming the woman completely, this cocktail of the past and present, arms their oppressors to the teeth - the medieval supremacy of the man over woman is reinforced by the wealth and status he possesses in the modern society.

The immense development of technology and the resultant broad reach of social media, grown out of the compulsion for ruling elite and outside of its free will, has armed the deprived sections of the society, including women, to a great extent. Twitter and facebook have played a great role in recent upheavals from the spring revolution in Middle East to ‘me too’ campaign.

Despite all claims to its being sponsored by the vested interests, the fact remains that the ‘me too’ campaign is a spontaneous response of the victims of sexual harassment to their oppression. It was scream of the wounded and distressed souls that found its resonance in a chain reaction in ‘me too’ campaign.

Workers Socialist Party can proudly claim to its credit to be the only party that has officially and openly supported the ‘me too’ Campaign. While most of the ‘lefts’ occupied with their gender prejudices, either remained passive or opposed the movement on different pretexts, WSP supported the movement and called for its further intensification to expose all elite predators.

We summarily rejected the objection that the campaign be not supported for its rooting inside the bourgeois and petty bourgeois layers of the society. De-hors to its origins, the campaign has created shudders inside the elite political and social establishment. It tossed all the dirt of the capitalist society to the surface, exposing its moral bankruptcy, overnight. It demonstrated that the institutions of the bourgeois democracy, from Parliament to Press and corporate to courts, are the citadels of gender repression.

One who remains neutral to this protest of the deprived lot, is not Marxist. Marxists must take to the front ranks in supporting this insurgency against the existing social order and conditions.

None of the women leaders, across the political spectrum, that include, Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitaraman, Vrinda Karat, has lent support to the movement till date.

As number of women celebrities and sections of women have come in open support of the accused molesters and harassers, the argument of the feminists that it is ‘war of sexes’, falls flat. Alongside, the support to the movement from many across the gender lines, fortifies the stance of Marxists that no meaningful fight against gender oppression can ever be launched on the limited basis of ‘sex identity’.

From the very beginning, WSP has most decisively rejected all proposals and efforts of bourgeois feminists of all hues, to drag the movement to the blind alley of sex identity.

To us, the gender oppression that includes sex-based discrimination and social injustice of all kind, is the prime front of the class struggle. Marxists have emphatically underscored that the working class cannot liberate itself except through liberation of all oppressed sections of the society, including women. Thus, the fight against gender oppression is one of the core tasks of Marxists and the working class. Liberation of women is the pre-condition of liberation of the workers as a class.

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