After Utsav Chakraborty (@wootsav), ex-AIB comic, was called out for sexual harassment just a few days ago on Twitter. Multiple other women are now using the platform to openly talk about the various alleged sexual offenders they have encountered that include personalities like Chetan Bhagat, Anurag Verma (better known as @KitAnurag), Mayank Jain (Principal Correspondent at Business Standard), and well-known singer Kailash Kher. This collective information was bought to our attention thanks to Sheena (@weeny on Twitter) with this particular thread of women calling out their perpetrators.
It’s heartbreaking to see that women are speaking up about these encounters, months some even, years after they have been ill-treated. But also, we feel a sense of pride and camaraderie with them for having the courage to finally speak up and demand they be heard. We can’t help but feel more and more enraged with each new tweet that’s been added to this thread. Keep scrolling to see.
It’s been A DAY. A thread collating all the predators outed today.
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 4, 2018
Utsav Chakraborty, Comedian
Read this harrowing thread outing @wootsaw https://t.co/VETpPYPoQU
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 4, 2018
Anurag Verma Ex-Trends Editor, Huffington Post India
Another outing @/kitanurag https://t.co/Xn3Li4yQNq
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 4, 2018
Mayank Jain, Principal Correspondent, Business Standard
A new one naming @Mayank1029 https://t.co/WhAZNKucRy
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 4, 2018
K.R. Sreenivas, Editor, TOI, Hyderabad
And it goes on. Here we have @KRSreenivas https://t.co/nbjlHaDtXE
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 5, 2018
Ishrath Nawaz, Executive Creative Director, Publicis India
Times up for Ishrath Nawazhttps://t.co/HxYLvQN4KL
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 5, 2018
Gautam Adhikari, ex EIC, DNA, Mumbai
Meghna Pant will probably call this a bad date cos she sucks https://t.co/77NlGI9FuZ
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 5, 2018
Sadanand Menon, Cultural Critic & Photographer
Sadanand Menon https://t.co/yZrPrqheSX
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 5, 2018
Kiran Nagarkar, Indian Novelist & Playwright
Kiran Nagarkarhttps://t.co/dPdHmvfrXr
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 5, 2018
Soham Hundekar, Photographer
Soham Hundekarhttps://t.co/eqe2iho2eQ
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 5, 2018
Chetan Bhagat, Indian Author
And it goes on. Chetan Bhagat @chetan_bhagat pic.twitter.com/xyI9tSgfMc
— ? Sheena (@weeny) October 6, 2018
Kanan Gill, Comedian
With all this outing happening right now, am actually really surprised nobody has mentioned Kanan Gill. He was drunk & behaved inappropriately with me & a couple of friends at a mixer few years ago.
We then kept distance, but his actions seemed to suggest a pattern of behaviour.— Magali Vaz • Magalic.com (@magali_c) October 5, 2018
After Tanushree Datta spoke up about her alleged perpetrators from the Bollywood industry, it looks like the Journalism and Media industry isn’t too far behind. Uncultured behaviour like this only goes to show how deep the roots of male privilege run in the minds of these men. Men who pose to the outside world as being woke and feminist. Men who are in positions of power. Men who are educated, who are supposed to know better. And that’s why it stings. You can’t blame these disgusting acts on the fact that they are not educated or don’t know better. Many of them have come out and apologised for their behaviour, but is that enough?
As much as we’d wish to, we cannot go back in time and protect each of these victims from their perpetrators, or heal them of the anxiety and hopelessness they feel. But what we do promise to do is be a voice of reason, a voice of change for those who need it.
We, at MissMalini, will make sure that this, isn’t just another report of a heinous crime, but a call to tell each of our readers that we’re here to bring a shift in an industry. A shift that will help women and men raise their voice, stand tall in who they are and join us in this mission in making the internet, social media and this world a better place.