This story first appeared in gulfnews.com

Ruling significant because it will give more women the courage to speak up, says Ramani

“A lot of women have already messaged me and told me how hopeful this makes them feel, how empowered it makes them feel. In addition to giving more women the courage to speak up, this verdict will also dissuade powerful men from filing false cases against women who do speak up”.

Priya Ramani sounded relieved, happy and resolute as she spoke to me days after the landmark verdict by a Delhi court that acquitted the journalist of criminal defamation, charges brought against her by former union minister of India MJ Akbar, who she had accused of sexual harassment.

Akbar had to resign as a minister in the Modi government in 2018 after Ramani’s revelation, which lead to nearly 20 other women speaking out against him.

“Women can’t be punished for raising instances of sexual abuse,” the court said while acquitting Ramani. It added that “right of reputation cannot be protected at the cost of right to dignity”.

Important verdict for India’s #MeToo movement

This verdict isn’t just significant for Priya Ramani, who could have faced two years in jail for “defaming” Akbar because she spoke out against his harassment.

It is also an important verdict for India’s #MeToo movement, which began online on social media in 2018, when several women came forward with their horror stories of sexual harassment.

Many of these women found huge support but there was also the expected backlash — “why are you speaking up now, so many years later”; “why didn’t you file a complaint then?” etc.

This verdict is significant because Priya Ramani stood up to a powerful man in the government, at a time when sexual harassment allegations against a former Chief Justice of India were brushed aside; when other women, like those who spoke out from the entertainment industry, were shunned for daring to break their silence.

The verdict is significant because it will, as Priya says, give more women the courage to speak up and give hope to the many voiceless women at the workplace who face sexual harassment on a regular basis and find it hard to speak up in a culture that discredits their voices.

What makes this judgement by Judge Ravindra Kumar Pandey significant is that the passage of time is no longer something that will be held against a woman for speaking about the violations of her rights. This is a line of attack most often used against survivors.

MJ Akbar, a former top editor and ex minister is a powerful figure in India Image Credit: PTI

Priya Ramani’s ordeal happened over 20 years ago. “Every time there was a hearing, people would tag me (on Twitter) to tell me I was definitely going to lose because why should the court care about something that happened 20 years ago”, Priya told me.

The judge said “It can’t be ignored that most times sexual harassment is committed behind closed doors”.

“Most of the women who suffer abuse can’t often speak up due to stigma and attack on their character,” he added.

Victim on trial

But beyond the euphoria of this verdict, the realities are deeply complex. What Priya Ramani’s story also tells us is how messed up our systems are. Instead of MJ Akbar being held accountable in a court of law for all the accusations of sexual harassment he faced, it was the victim, Priya Ramani, who was put on trial.

“It was very tough”, says Priya. “First there was the anger that a case had been filed against me for sharing my truthful story and to intimidate me and all the other women who spoke up.

There was a bit of fear that he is a powerful man from the ruling elite; there was despair with these never ending court dates and the feeling that it would never end; there was a fatigue of managing regular life alongside the case”, she said to me.

For over two years, Priya Ramani faced a courtroom where the atmosphere was often intimidating and hostile. I was witness to many hearings where Priya was virtually bullied by opposing counsel.

“Every time the words #MeToo were mentioned in court, the opposing team of lawyers would snigger and whisper among themselves. There was that vibe throughout the trial and it was very aggressive. My strategy was just to look inward and block out everything around me and not make eye contact with sniggering lawyers and stare directly at the judge.

“All three of the judges were empathetic and especially the first judge Samar Vishal whom I had to tell my story to. I just looked at him directly and no one else and just focused on my story and blocked out everything that was happening in the courtroom”, Priya said.

The verdict will also shine a spotlight once again on workplace harassment and mechanisms in place to deal with the problem. The #MeToo movement forced many organisations to relook at how they deal with complaints and compliance with Supreme Court mandated guidelines on the same.

Priya, her lawyer Rebecca Mammen John, and her rock of a husband, Samar Harlankar, have shown many of us the most important toolkit in these times — how to grow a spine.

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source: NDTV

NEW DELHI: 

People involved in terror attacks should not just be blacklisted but tried and punished, and if there is evidence against the Jaish-e Mohammed and its leader Masood Azhar, he must be listed as a global terrorist at the UN, Saudi Arabia said today. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, said the Saudi-Pakistan joint statement, which referred to “the need for avoiding the politicisation of the UN listing regime” was not a reference to Masood Azhar.

The Pakistan-based terror group has taken responsibility for Thursday’s attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, in which 40 securitymen died.

“Our policy on listing individuals is very clear, if someone is engaged in terrorism, if someone belongs to a terror organisation that is responsible for murdering people, if somebody fiances terrorism or recruits for terrorism, that person is implicated in terrorism and ought to be punished and if you can’t capture that person, he or she has to be designated so that they cannot roam the world freely and when they are captured, they are brought to justice,” said Adel Aljubeir, who is part of the delegation accompanying Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The prince is in India after a two-day visit to Pakistan, amid an escalation of tension between Delhi and Islamabad following the attack.

Asked if India needs to provide more evidence on the involvement of Jaish and Masood Azhar in terror attacks in the country, the minister said, it is an “ongoing dialogue” both with Saudi Arabia and the other members of the international community.

Ahead of the Saudi visit, there was criticism in India about a joint statement issued during the Crown Prince’s visit to Pakistan. In what was seen as an apparent reference to India’s effort to include list Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under UN rules, the statement read that the Crown Prince and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had “underlined the need for avoiding politicisation of UN listing regime”.

There has also been criticism about the 20 billion dollar investment Saudi Arabia has promised to Pakistan.

Today, while the Crown Prince, in an address to the media, mentioned that terrorism and extremism are a “common concern” and Saudi Arabia will “cooperate with India and neighbouring states”, there was disappointment that Pulwama, Jaish or Pakistan was not named.

“We were one of the first countries to very strongly condemn the terrorist attack,” the Saudi minister said. “We have very good relations with India in terms of counter terrorism, we have good relations with India when it comes to exchanging information against terrorists — including information that led to stopping terrorist attacks,” he added.

With regards to the listing issue, “originally it had to do with the financial issues that involve FATF and then I guess FATF was taken and it was read like this so I don’t believe that it pertains specifically to the issue that you mentioned,” said Adel Aljubeir.

Underscoring the need for reopening of dialogue with Islamabad, the minister said, “Pakistan is an important country to Saudi Arabia and India is important to Saudi Arabia and so it pains us to see conflict between two countries that we believe to be two friendly countries. We believe that instability in this part of the world is danger to rest of the world”.

Asked if Saudi Arabia believes that Pakistan is doing enough to take action against those terror groups that operate from their territory that target India, the minister said, “I haven’t looked into this issue because that’s not what we do in the foreign ministry, we are diplomats… we are not law enforcement or security people, but I would expect that every country in the world should do everything it can to go after the terrorists”.

source: NDTV