Is Priya Ramani acquittal a reason to celebrate? | Two Sides With Afrida

A defamation suit was filed against journalist Priya Ramani for narrating her ordeal of facing sexual advances from M J Akbar, who was the editor of Asian Age during her tenure in the newspaper. During the MeToo movement in 2018 where a series of women came up to speak about workplace harassment, Ramani disclosed that Akbar called her to The Oberoi hotel in Mumbai for a job interview in December 1993. Akbar filed a defamation suit against Ramani for besmirching what his lawyers called during the trial in court a ‘stellar reputation’. Now on the question of whether the acquittal of Priya Ramani, in this case, is a matter of celebration, yes most certainly it is primarily for three reasons.

The court has set the record straight  1. That time lapse doesn't have any bearing on the culpability of the case. 2. An offender CAN be called out on a public platform and 3. A person of high reputation is equally capable of sexual crimes. So a stellar reputation cannot be guarded at the cost of a woman’s dignity.

This sets a huge precedent for women in terms of sending a message out to potential harassers and predators that there can be no getting away using instrumentalities of law to threaten or intimidate a woman from reporting sexual misconduct.

Yet we must ask- are we celebrating the acquittal of a victim of workplace harassment! Should we not reserve the celebration for when the guilty are punished? Somewhere have we forgotten that it's not punishment of the guilty, it's the acquittal of a person who had to stand as an accused being a victim, that’s where my discomfiture lies in celebrating this.

If a reasonably empowered woman was made to go through this for speaking up, what’s the hope for the millions of others who report to powerful male superiors and face indiscretions of all degrees and kinds. They still remain vulnerable. Think of a film industry intern, think of house helps, think of construction labourers. Yes, They CAN speak up but WILL THEY? The power balance is so heavily tilted on one side that it's extremely daunting for a woman to even think of calling out an indiscretion or a transgression- often times its ignored and downplayed by the woman herself because its so hugely inconvenient. So how does she muster up the courage? Specially if there is a job or career jeopardised?

I feel the onus is on organisations to create healthy working environments. The responsibility lies with the HR teams to create a redressal mechanism where a woman or a man for that matter, can report without fear or favour workplace harassment. Leaving it only to the courage of a person I am afraid, may not change things given the dynamics involved.

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