It all began with a hashtag on Twitter in 2017. According to a report a noted Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment by over 70 women. After that, the world witnessed something called #MeToo movement. A floodgate of accusations is opening from everywhere with no dam in sight. Molestation charges are flowing . WHOLESTATION will be a better world as the WHOLE male world stands in the dock. Like all revolutions which erupt in the West and end up swallowing the East, this one is no different. After Quit India Movement, this MeToo Movement is swelling up and women from all backgrounds are joining the bandwagon. Bollywood actor Nana Patekar, journalist turned politician M J Akbar, film director Vikas Bahl and God knows how many to follow are facing accusations that once upon a time, they have `sexually harassed’ some women who – decades after have finally woken up to tell their story. The stories may (or may not) be believable, but the question is `why now’?
What is wrong with us? Where has common sense gone? Women have a right to say what they want to say, and have a right to defend themselves. But there is a system in place. Does that mean anyone from anywhere can say anything to put you in trouble. By the way who will check the veracity of the matter? How will courts decide such cases? Is just a mere charge strong enough to malign a man. All this gender discourse is getting meaner and meaner with time. Film stars, politicians, sports personalities and all fame-hungry people are finding crazier ways of gaining attention. Amid this who knows how many true stories will be crushed in silence. Hang misogynists, but apply your mind whichever gender you belong to.
Sexual harassment is a serious issue. But it must be approached with seriousness, sanity and common sense. Guilty deserve punishment whoever they are. And yes there are instances where innocent women could not speak up for the sheer fear and stigma. One can’t dismiss every story as an attention-pulling gimmick. Cases can be studied on merit and evidence. But when it happens at a mass scale, how do you nail the truth. When you too, me too, she too, everyone has a story to share, who will believe whom? For God’s sake have some dignity.
Whatever the profession, women deserve respect as men. Their security comes first. That is being human and that is being logical, but what we are doing is hysterical. This way we are not creating a movement, we are creating a chaos. A gender chaos. A battleground of blackmail where old scores can be settled, where muckraking will become a norm, where human respect will become a casualty and above all where truth will disappear with falsehood. On one hand we advocate a free mixing of sexes. Keeping up with the modern demands, we have even decriminalised illicit men-women relations. But here we adopt medieval methods. We make women stronger by making men vulnerable. That is a mockery of justice. When we have expiry dates on registering complaints of any nature, why entertain a post-dated statement here. Long forgotten details can’t be raked up with such freshness as to qualify for a case now. Legality doesn’t work the way morality does.
Tailpiece: Soon the dead men will be kicked out of their graves and asked to defend the molestation charges. If a Hollywood actress accuses her co-star of molestation in a dream, Bollywood will echo. METOO…..