India's #MeToo Manthan: PM Must Help Drive Change Post MJ Akbar

THE ONE THING ON which there would be a consensus in our argumentative, and highly polarized political firmament, is the fact that PM Modi is a change agent.

- Prabal Basu Roy​​​​​​​

He has shaken things up in the national discourse and, whilst the jury is out on the immediate impact, there can be no argument on the massive disruption he has created in the thinking at a national level: from Swachh Bharat, demonetization, crackdown on black money, Jandhan, IBC to triple talaq and the move towards an uniform civil code — the list goes on.

He now has as similar chance to help drive large-scale change for women’s safety in the workplace. As is obvious from the #MeToo revelations, sexual harassment is all pervading — this really reflects on the thinking of our nation with respect to gender equality and respect for women as seen through the prism of our highly patriarchal society. Such things will take a couple of generations to resolve at the core as it needs education reforms at a fundamental level, but a firm beginning may have finally been made with the sacking of MJ Akbar.

Making examples of the high and mighty is a necessary ingredient in driving sustainable transformation. The PM has used this opportunity to do precisely this by making an example of Akbar, albeit in my view, after some avoidable dithering and a national outrage. Thankfully, he was a political lightweight though symbolically important in BJP’s scheme of things as a highly erudite ex-member of the Gandhi entourage.

Though many more ministers have continued in governments run by all dispensations in the past with allegations of far more horrific crimes, PM Modi has demonstrated that he is substantively different in matters of public accountability where it is not about legality but perceptions — a position which is radically different from what all political parties have taken whenever exposes of their ilk have been made in the public domain.

Contrast this with well-governed democracies like the UK or the US where even a hint of impropriety was enough to force ministers out of government.