Earlier we had reported how the Leftists come together to defend a damning list of academics in Indian institutes accused of sexual harassment claiming how a ‘due process’ should be followed instead of name and shame. A list of academics was put up in a Facebook post by one Raya Sarkar, accusing them of sexual misconduct towards women, especially students. Lot of women, who were too afraid of taking a legal course, reached out to her, many anonymously, accusing their professors of sexual harassment.
In wake of Harvey Weinstein incident, a lot of people are coming out and retelling the horrors of men in powerful position abusing their power by sexually harassing women, and even men. Hence, it comes as a shock when the torchbearers of feminism in India are actively trying to suppress these voices by asking them to not publish such lists. 12 self proclaimed feminists of India have written a post that they are against the idea of “name and shame”.
Let us brief you with the 14 flag-bearers of feminism in India who are passive aggressively implying that the victim may be lying about sexual harassment and hence the accusations may be unsubstantiated.
1. Ayesha Kidwai
Ayesha Kidwai, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) believes she is a parallel judiciary unto herself and is currently leading a kangaroo court against the Vice Chancellor of JNU accusing him of promoting authoritarianism. Let us also not forget that she has allegedly threatened students and tried to protect Ashraf Alam, a JNU professor accused and found guilty of sexual molestation of a student in JNU, by indulging in victim shaming.
2. Brinda Bose
Brinda Bose is a professor at JNU who had rallied for Professor Saibaba, who has been awarded lifetime imprisonment for having Maoist links. The court had also found JNU student Hem Mishra and four others guilty of waging a war against the country. Brinda and other Leftist professors had appealed against the action taken against the ‘loving professor’.
3. Janaki Abraham
Professor in Sociology department in Delhi University, Janaki Abraham had in 2013 credited the youth for being assertive and triggering protests to create safe spaces for women. Now, 4 years down the line, she believes online protests are delegitimizing the long struggle against sexual harassment.
4. Janaki Nair
JNU professor Janaki Nair believes that only a nervous and insecure regime distrusts its intellectuals and the university as the space of critical intellection. In the same breath, she hails the bully Gurmehar Kaur and called her fearless. She also identifies herself as feminist.
5. Kavita Krishnan
Ironically, Kavita is the Secretary at All India Progressive Women’s Association and till two days back, was a very vocal advocate of naming and shaming abusers and sexual predators. Of course, until the abuser isn’t allegedly a professor in one of the elite academic institutes with Leftist and pro-Naxal ideologue. Kavita has also been the former joint secretary at JNU Students Union.
Abuse on SM: Name & Shame them
Indian Army: Name & Shame them
Sexual Harassment: I’m uneasy with the Name & Shame.
Check the reason pic.twitter.com/5bxj27RnZl
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) October 26, 2017
6. Madhu Mehra
Madhu heads a legal resource organisation advancing women’s rights, Partners for Law in Development and till 4th October this year believed that ‘We cannot depend on our legal system to bring many convictions or a big drop in cases’ with regards to witch hunting cases. It is surprise, then, that she has suddenly developed faith in the legal system for sexual harassment by academics.
7. Nandini Rao
Nandini Rao is a self proclaimed ‘independent women’s rights activist’ and focuses on women’s rights, including violence against women, sexual harassment at the workplace. She claims she spends the best part of her life (very productively) listening to women’s stories of struggle and the pain and joy they express through their songs. Perhaps, Facebook posts discussing sexual harassment is not something she ‘enjoys’.
8. Nivedita Menon
JNU (yet again) professor Nivedita Menon believes Dalit candidates are not good in English.
Nivedita Menon (chairperson of her centre) refused to sign on decision of selection committee saying #Dalit candidates not good in English /2
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) September 7, 2017
She has also been accused of resorting to name-calling a Dalit student.
Good that selection committee & observer of SC/ST selection & JNU admin overruled Nivedita Menon & ensured that candidate was appointed/4
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) September 7, 2017
Nivedita, who claims to be a feminist too, at one point said that in an academic environment, the definition of sexual harassment would have to be different from other kind of workplaces. She said universities are filled with young people in their formative years, and hence we must think about what it does to them when the teacher regularly passes derogatory comments. You could read her book “Seeing like a Feminist” from where the above quote is taken here.
Now if only she’d practice what she preaches. Unsurprisingly, she also believes India is illegally occupying Kashmir.
9. Pratiksha Baxi
A JNU facutly, Baxi also talks and writes on feminism. In 2012, she believed “Men and women, alike, from all classes, castes and communities must adopt a stance of solidarity that will not tolerate politicians, police officers, planners, judges and lawyers who build their careers on silencing the voices of raped women. Only a heightened intolerance for any kind of sexual violence as a social force will begin to chip away at the monumentalisation of rape cultures in India. Our collective melancholia must be far more productive.” Of course, a lot of water seems to have passed under the bridge since then, eh, Ms Baxi?
10. Ranjani Mazumdar
Professor at the JNU (is someone keeping a tab of number of people associated with JNU in the list of ’eminent feminists’?) seems to be against the publicly naming and shaming since someone they know is named in the list.
Enough said. By the way, Ira Bhaskar, who is tagged in the post is film actress Swara Bhaskar’s mother. Ira was also at one point member of Central Board of Film Certification. Pretty sure Swara is talented and her mother being board member had nothing to do with her film career.
11. Sabeena Gadihoke
Sabeena is a JNU alumnus (I sense a pattern here) and currently teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia. She takes to photography and films to talk about feminism and spends most of her free time signing letters condemning things she doesn’t agree with.
12. Shikha Jhingan
A JNU professor, Shikha Jhingan is a batchmate of Sabeena and Ranjani and like to talk about secularism in India, Shah Bano Case and the rise of Hindu Right through their documentaries.
13. Shohini Ghosh
Ghosh is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia and till 14th October believed in protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty.
14. Vrinda Grover
Vrinda Grover was one of the torchbearers in saving Yakub Memon from the gallows and went knocking on Supreme Court of India’s doors at 2 am to save him from the noose. More importantly, she also represented Ishrat Jahan, who was accused of being a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative.
Why are these ‘feminists’ threatened? Is it because the new breed of feminists are not ready to play by the rules set by them? Do they fear they might become irrelevant? They, at one point, thought are the ‘voices of the oppressed’. Now those oppressed voices have started speaking, on their own and the voices are clear. Without any distortion and are not getting lost or misconstrued in transmission. Are they afraid that their feminism, which is so riddled with hypocrisy and dichotomy, is getting exposed?
One wonders, what gives them the right to speak on behalf of all women? Who made them the representatives? Do they feel entitled because of their association with JNU (9 out of 14 above are associated with JNU), they are the flagbearers of feminism?
And more importantly, are they trying to hide something? Whom are they trying to save? One of their own?
