OT: Tarun Tejpal steps down as Tehelka editor after alleged sexual misconduct

[Crookbond]

someone should tell that to Tehelka's management.

karunanundy: Tehelka needs to set up a SH Cmtee now to decide penalty after hearing young journo- if only to protect themselves from further liability.

In this case there was physical violence (caught on tape) and the actions constitute attempt to rape - this requires immediate police action as per IPC. The sexual harassment inquiry guidelines are meant for (relatively less serious) things like staring' date=' passing lewd comments etc. For physical violence and attempt to rape (penetration etc) criminal action is required.[/quote'] Let me say that it requires "at least" a sexual harassment enquiry to start with. It is the victim's choice apparently. Karuna is a Supreme Court advocate. Btw, what tape is this you are referring to?

[ganeshran]

An FIR should be lodged and investigation conducted by the police. These are serious allegations

[asterix]

^ Read reports that Goa Police has started investigations.... This issue has come at a bad time for Congress which was trying to keep the 'stalking issue' in the limelight... BJP will try to keep the focus on this issue... CBI might've to release more information to tabloids to help Congress move the focus back on Modi misdeeds...

[Raghav_12]

Let me say that it requires "at least" a sexual harassment enquiry to start with. It is the victim's choice apparently. Karuna is a Supreme Court advocate. Btw, what tape is this you are referring to?

An FIR against Tarun can be lodged only under IPC 354. But this being a compoundable offence (unlike IPC 376), nothing can be done unless victim herself wants to get person prosecuted even if there are conclusive evidences other than the testimony of victim.

[Number]

[Number]

A member of the Network of Women in Media in India, Neha Dixit, who is a freelance journalist and a contributor to India Ink, signed an open letter demanding that media houses including Tehelka set up complaints committees. She said that her own complaint of sexual harassment at Tehelka when she was a staffer in 2008 went largely ignored as well.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/newsmagazines-handling-of-sex-harassment-complaint-draws-criticism/?ref=world&_r=3

[ganeshran]

Saw this in a legal group on Facebook.

A leading news magazine has setup a committee following Vishaka Guidelines to probe an alleged sexual crime committed by an editor on one of his reporting employees. Even a bare reading of Vishaka guidelines indicate that the same applies to sexual harassment and not sexual assault. In the media, it appears that there is some serious misreading/ misunderstanding on Vishaka guidelines set out by the honourable supreme court. The guidelines covers the following acts sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as: a) Physical contact and advances; b) A demand or request for sexual favours; c) Sexually coloured remarks; d) Showing pornography; e) Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature The acts committed by the alleged editor do not fall under the above guidelines but rather under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 Section 354B - Act with intent to disrobe a woman Section 375 - Sexual Assualt (erstwhile RAPE) - Penetration (other than penile penetration) of any object or any part of body to any extent Acccordingly, it is contended that setting up of vishaka guidelines committee by the magazine has no legal standing and is wholly unnecessary and an after-thought exercise in the particular case as the criminal law amendment ordinace 2013 squarely cover these alleged offences. In such cases of cognizable offence involving aggravated sexual assault, the right recourse is for the police to register the FIR make arrest and proceed with investigation as these powers are not available to committee formed under Vishaka Guidelines.

[beetle]

Shameless conduct by the people who are the self appointed experts in crime exposure.Shameful conduct by the management in covering up the crime. The so called civil society activist,Shoma Chaudhury, turned out to be an enabler .Tejpal ...the crime crusader turned out to be a sexual predator.... trying to disrobe them, and penetrate them with your fingers..---under the new rape law....that amounts to rape.

[EnterTheVoid]

In a clear cut case of rape/attempted rape, the victim is told to shut up and the attacker goes on a 6 month holiday. Jai Ho.

[ravishingravi]

"I must do penance that lacerates me." (which is 6 months of not doing work). Only a true liberal can write and get away with this. "

[bulbul]

The grievance of the of the citizens' movement after the gangrape of Nirbhaya in Delhi was that sexual assaults are always under reported. Is this what is happening in this case? Just because the assailant has connections in the Congress party the nation is deprived of the sage advise of P Chidambaram, the caustic comments of Kapil Sibal and the exaggerated tweets of Manish Tewari.

Arun Jaitley :hatsoff:

[asterix]

Salvage mission started with the help of NDTV... I see a logical conclusion of blaming Modi in this developing saga...

[bulbul]

Tehelka supporters are vanished from ICF :((

[DomainK]

Shoma chaudhary, wasnt this the same lady last year that came to NYC with Dutt memsaab to lecture on the feminist movement in India and what problems Indian women face with regards to gender issues. Now, she is the same lady who is saying an apology justifies sexual assault. the hypocrisy is unbearable.... i feel sad for Indian victims of gender violence. even the so-called torchbearers of gender equality are ultimate chewtiyas, who will do anything to save the back of one of their own, even if that means somebody stays mentally scarred for the rest of their life. Jai Hind :isalute:

Most of the socialists, page 3 personalities that participate in talk shows and panels in news channels are just people who know how to talk.

[Yoda-esque]

Tehelka supporters are vanished from ICF :((

Who are they

[ravishingravi]

"I didn't know the gruesome details thought it was a drunken misbehaviour at a party. I take back my words and delete the tweet " Javed Akhtar. Yes he said earlier atleast Tejpal repented unlike the M. What a perverted world these secularists live in ?

[ravishingravi]

So, I guess they will set up an internal lokpal to clear their guy.

[ravishingravi]

Smita Barooah ‏@smitabarooah 21 Nov Given Tarun #Tejpal's misdimeanor & the organisational response led by Shoma Chaudhury,I can no longer get myself to write for #Tehelka

[bulbul]

Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury has acted in tandem with the magazine's Founder-Editor Tarun Tejpal by stating only his version in the sexual assault case against him, said a former employee of the company. The former employee, Revati Laul, has been asked by the girl sexually assaulted by Tejpal to speak on her behalf. She said that the response of the Tehelka management has appalled her.

"Truth is out there for all of us to see, I feel shattered. It's an open-and-shut case of rape, why is Shoma using words like 'lapse' and 'incident'," said Laul, referring to Chaudhury's response on the allegations. She said Chaudhury's interviews seem to suggest that she is talking on behalf of the perpetrator (Tejpal).

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/shoma-acting-in-tandem-with-tarun-tejpal-in-sex-assault-case-exemployee/435804-3-244.html

[ravishingravi]

Being a very filmy person (but you already knew that I suppose), my ideal of a reporter was the character played by Sekhar Suman in “Tridev” whose murder, while doing investigative journalism piece on the dangerous Bhujang, let loose a sequence of spectacular events, that included but was not limited to Sunny Deol looking at the camera and saying, in a deadpan voice, “Ek aur sipahi desh ke liye shaheed ho gaye”. In real life, the only people who came close to that khadi-clad, jhola-carrying ideal were the guys at Tehelka. Or that’s the way I saw things when they did the match-fixing sting, blowing the lid off the conspiracy of silence in a most spectacular way. And if that was not enough, then went up against the might of the NDA government and in the process was almost finished off by them. This was brave stuff. They wrote their pieces well. True they came across as a bit too sensational and full of themselves at times, but then again with that name what else could you do. Then, over the years, I began to see a pattern. That Tehelka chose its targets selectively. While the facade of fairness was sought to be kept, it was obvious which side of the political spectrum Tehelka was. Their editorial tone, over the years, became increasingly fundamentalist, which I define as those who split the world into “us” and “them”, with different standards for “us” (people who are ideologically aligned with our idea of the world) and different standards for “them” (those that are not). In their defense, they couldn’t even lay claim left-wing counterculture street-cred any more, with what their big-ticket, big-business-sponsored “thinkfests” and the perception of them being aligned in pushing the agenda of the ruling party. Tehelka was big media now, and the edgy-independent paper posturing had worn thin. And now the Tejpal story has broken, as grave charges of sexual assault have been levelled against Tarun Tejpal by a Tehelka staffer. I was shocked. Not so much by Mr. Tejpal, though definitely disgusted. This is not the first time that powerful men have been accused of considering themselves above the standards of behavior that apply to mere mortals (after all, who would “sting” the “stinger-in-chief”) and it won’t be the last. I was shocked by Shoma Chaudhury. While I have always found Tarun Tejpal’s prose, both in articles as well in fiction, to be overwrought (somewhat like Nana Patekar’s Krantiveer speech) and the acclaim that he has received largely a function of being a valued member of the expensive-shawl-on-shoulder, rural-handicrafts-bag-carrying, champagne-stem-holding literary closed social network of New Delhi (and yes please feel free to call me a philistine for not being able to appreciate his style), Shoma was different. She wrote well, with emotion but with clarity, especially on women’s issues. And while one could call into question her neutrality in politics, her commitment to feminism was beyond doubt. Till now. When I read Shoma Chaudhury’s mail and Tarun Tejpal’s mail appended below, once I got beyond big words like “atonement” and “laceration” and other Tejpalisms, that are nothing but the literary equivalent of bashing ones finger with a rock and screaming ”yeh Hindu ka khoon yeh Musalman ka khoon”, out of the way I was shocked by the gall of both Shoma and Tejpal in that they wanted to make us believe that a six month paid vacation is “atonement” for an act of what I thought then, was of sexual harassment. And even this agreeing to wear the sackcloth of penance, like kings of yore, was not warranted but was being undertaken because Tejpal such a noble and ethical man. The way the mail trivialized what had happened (“untoward incident”) one would have thought that Tejpal had farted in polite company and was now making the point “See I could have stayed silent or looked accusingly at someone else. But I have come forward.” Reading between the lines of course, I had thought that this must have been a proposition to a female staffer gone bad, and now the married Mr. Tejpal was quickly “recusing” himself from work to mollify the said female and prevent civil action. As the details came out with the mail sent by the victim to Shoma becoming public, it became evident that was being accused was full-fledged sexual assault, not once but twice, one that would no longer qualify as a “lapse of judgement” or “aweful misreading of the situation”. And that since the victim’s mail had been addressed to Shoma, she was well aware of the full set of accusations before she forwarded the “atonement” mail from Tejpal, and that her claim that the victim had been satisfied by the action taken, and the issue closed was patently false. [Exchange of mails between Tejpal and victim clearly shows this.] Things only get worse. She snaps at a journalist for asking questions, and asked the media “Are you the aggrieved party?” presumably meaning that since they are not, they have no right to investigate or question her. I won’t even spell out the irony, except to say that all of Chattisgarh would fall short on the iron content. She mentions the lady not wanting to seek vengeance, which is how she now refers to “justice”. She says that there are alternate versions of the story (which there well may be), which of course weakens her case because it means an investigation was necessary, one which she said there was not. After much outrage after her “it’s all closed” first stance, she backs down, constitutes a sexual harassment investigation body, (which she is legally required to do), and in it is is someone from Tejpal’s circle of associates. (pictured with him) and even then, her attitude is “We have done more than we should have.” And to add, some of their circle-friends have remained muted on social media (they are usually voluble on any perceived crime against women), instead choosing to concentrate on the schadenfreude of “Sanghi trolls”, as if that was the most important issue, or on drawing parallels with Amit Shah “Saheb” case, though there really is none. Which brings me to my point. This kind of behavior, regrettable though it is, is to be expected. This is what happens when we fall prey to fundamentalism (the irony is that these people call themselves “liberal”), when the world is split into convenient “us” and “them” compartments with us=good, them=conspiring against the good. If Shoma could see herself as a third person, she would see that her sequence of actions and her public pronouncements are identical to a Khap head or a matriarch heads trying to hush up “that incident” involving pervy uncle. It has been settled. This is all internal to us. It’s none of your business. There are alternate versions. We will deal with it. She does not want revenge. Exactly the same playbook. Except this time, the accent is impeccable and titles of Ian McEwan books are being used. I would like to believe that Shoma does not even realize how outrageous her own behavior has been. That’s the thing about fundamentalism. It blinds. Even the best and sharpest of people. And in the end, they controvert everything they have worked their lives for. In a way it’s as sad as it is infuriating. What will happen? The cynic in me kind of knows the answer. Nothing much. Tejpal has already accused “political forces” which, we all know, given that this is Tehelka, who they are alluding to. Which means he will get away free. And with an internal committee being made by the circle and of the circle and for the circle, I won’t hold my breath waiting them for them to give a verdict against Tejpal. At the very very worst, Tejpal will lose his job. He will take that vacation. He will return as a head of a publishing house or the head of some other media. The circle-people either staying silent or being critical of him will fly back like an extended elastic band. Somber panels at litfests and thinkfests, with cameras and flashes and somber faux-serious faces, will discuss threadbare the evils of Indian patriarchy and the conspiracies of silence. The ripples will die down, the leaves will once again cover the water, and everything will go on just as it happens. And the ideal of the upright journalist pursuing truth fairly and without bias. Well, we always have Hindi movies for that. About these ads http://greatbong.net/2013/11/22/us-and-them/ Nails it like a boss