Late on Saturday, allegations of sexual harassment emerged on cofounder of propaganda website, Alt News, Pratik Sinha. An anonymous note was published on an Instagram handle where a woman had accused Sinha of being a ‘sex maniac’ and highly manipulative so as to get women to have sex with him.
The woman had also stated that her allegations would be rubbished by the ecosystem and she’d be labelled as a BJP/RSS stooge. However, she was all praises for another Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair and the website itself. In fact, it was the ideology they pretended to stand for that had attracted her to Sinha in the first place. She said she was ‘impressed by his crusade against false news’. So at this point it would be safe to say she is not a ‘Sanghi’. A ‘Sanghi’ woman’s allegations of sexual harassment are usually laughed at or dismissed because Left has often suggested and asserted that ‘Sanghis’ deserve to die.
Coming back to Sinha, from what the woman has revealed in her post, it appears more like a case of relationship gone sour than Sinha using his place of influence to sexually exploit or abuse a woman. It is likely his ideology attracted the woman towards him to initiate relationship, but not responding to messages or not being in an ‘exclusive’ relationship with someone or generally gaslighting and cheating on girlfriend or ghosting her is more reflective of his interpersonal relationship and shows he’s likely a despicable person personally as well.
It has been over 36 hours and by the time this article is being published, neither Pratik Sinha, nor Mohammed Zubair have tweeted anything or issued any refutal. Even Alt News has not issued any statement on the allegations against their cofounder. Which is quite interesting since Zubair, whose tweets have now led to riots and murders in the country, is also quite quick to point fingers on others and cry murder whenever any woman accuses someone of opposing political and/or religious ideology of sexual harassment.
However, what is even more damning, but not too surprisingly, is the silence of the entire ecosystem. No one is calling out Sinha’s terrible behaviour with a woman. Whether or not it is sexual exploitation, the gatekeepers of morality and flagbearers of feminism, who keep talking about problematic behaviour of men, emotional manipulation and general toxicity which comes with ‘men are trash’ brigade are silent.
In 2017, a year before the MeToo movement hit India, Raya Sarkar, then a law student in the US with her roots in India, put up a post on Facebook where she had named and shamed Indian academics who had been accused of sexual harassment. Subsequently, many other women came forward to retell the tales of their own abuse. However, the entire Leftist cabal had taken it upon themselves to shield the men.
Prominent Leftists and other professors of educational institutes like JNU had cautioned women calling our predatory behaviour of Leftist professors and urged to follow due process instead of ‘naming and shaming’ them. They argued against adopting ‘vigilantism’. In fact, JNU Teachers Association rallied behind Arshad Alam, a professor at JNU who was found guilty of sexually molesting a student.
You see, there’s this sense to empathise with the men of same political ideology accused of sexual abuse or exploitation. Because men of Leftist and Left-leaning ideology often talk about ‘feminism’ and ‘women empowerment’ and how they are ‘superior’ to men from ‘Right’ or ‘Sanghis’ who ‘do not respect’ women.
When Veteran journalist Vinod Dua was accused of sexual harassment, his daughter, ‘comedian’ and Bollywood entertainer Mallika Dua had rallied behind him. In her statement, soon after the allegations rose, addressed to the victim, Mallika Dua reiterated that she supported #MeToo movement but rued the fact that the victim had “dragged her name” in a controversy involving her father.
After expressing displeasure with the victim naming her, Mallika Dua went on to abuse people who were asking her to speak up. She termed these people as ‘bhakts’ and ‘RW trolls’ and asked them to ‘f*ck off’. She reiterated that she stands by the #MeToo movement. A liberal, feminist woman abusing ‘bhakts’ because a woman (who was not really a ‘bhakt’ herself by a long stretch of imagination) had accused her father of sexual harassment.
She ended her statement by saying that she stood by her father in this battle. Eventually, the left propaganda website The Wire, where Vinod Dua was then employed, disbanded the probe committee set up to look into the allegations of sexual harassment against Dua after he refused to face the woman.
A year later, Mallika Dua engaged in victim shaming. She took digs at the woman who had accused her father of sexual harassment. Vinod Dua passed away a few months later without really facing any ramifications of the allegations of sexual harassment against him.
Like Dua, another feminist-liberal filmmaker Nandita Das has also stood by her father, Jatin Das, accused of sexual harassment. Noted Conservationist Nisha Bora had accused Jatin Das of grabbing her and forcefully kissing her during a dinner in 2004. When the allegations surfaced, many questioned the silence of Nandita Das, who had earlier issued a statement to take a firm stand against sexual harassment and not to work with those people who are accused of sexual misconduct against women.
However, when her own father was accused of sexual harassment, she said that one should be sure about these allegations to make sure that the ‘movement’ is not diluted. She stayed clear from criticizing her father for his alleged sexual conduct but instead stands by him terming it as ‘allegations just to dilute the movement’.
But Sinha is a ‘liberal’. You know how the ‘comedians’ in India like to believe they are the most liberal and feminist of the lot and are all about equality and how they spout gyaan on consent? Well, a lot of women accused a lot of these comedians of sexual abuse in 2018 during the #MeToo wave. Know what some women revealed? All India Bakchod’s Tanmay Bhat knew about sexual misconduct of one of their collaborators but did nothing.
What is it about the so-called liberals who are otherwise champions of women’s rights suddenly go silent when someone they know is accused of rape? Where does the ‘believe her’ go? From Tehelka’s Tarun Tejpal to former TERI (The Energy and Resource Institute) chief R K Pachauri, the ‘liberals’ have downplayed the molestation charges and tried to silence those who spoke up.
At a time when it takes tremendous courage for victims to speak up on sexual abuse, why are the ‘liberals’ always around to silence a victim?
And till we know more about what transpired between Sinha and the woman, going by what is there in public domain, it just appears like problematic behaviour of Sinha that borders on being manipulative and emotionally abusive. But he is not cancelled and nor will he be. Because he is ‘fighting a cause’, that is ‘exposing the fascist Sanghis’ and destroying Sanghis is more important than dignity of a woman and protecting her from ‘sex maniac’.
