After MJ Akbar, another Indian politician accused of sexual misconduct

The #MeToo movement is going strong in India against the rampant sexual harassment that exists and has placed some of the very famous, influential men under the radar. With the movement first started in Bollywood, it has now gone beyond the Indian film industry and into the political realms after Union Minister MJ Akbar was accuse of sexual misconduct by more than half a dozen women. The campaign has now seen another politician, a Congress leader, being alleged of sexual harassment by a reporter named Sonal Kellogg. Highlighting the plight women journalists go through, Sonal Kellogg shared her story of harassment that occurred in 2006 after her employer -- The Asian Age -- ceased publication in Gujarat and she moved to Mumbai. It was then that she was given the responsibility of covering one of the Union ministries one headed by a leader who was the "media's favourite" and who studied at New Delhi's prestigious St Stephen's College before going to England for his masters.Opening about her encounter with the minister without identifying him Sonal in a piece for DailyO wrote, “He would greet me each time with a kiss, which I thought was a Delhi thing - in Gujarat, where I come from, politicians don't greet women journalists with hugs and kisses. But he would hold my face and try to kiss me on the mouth."She added that in 2014, she met the minister at his MP's bungalow in New Delhi.While she was there and talking to him, Sonal says, the minister got up to go to the washroom. On the way to the washroom, the minister "stretched his hand and suddenly pressed one of my breasts."A taken-aback Sonal then sharply told the minister: "Don't touch me." To this, the minister replied: "Why?"She remembers not meeting the minister after the incident. But she said that #MeToo movement gave her enough strength to speak out. 

from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2RSGJ3I

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