PTI, NEW DELHI: More women recounted in detail their alleged accounts of sexual harassment and assault at the hands of Union minister M J Akbar and actor Alok Nath as newer names got sucked into the #MeToo vortex on Wednesday.
The Congress, too, stepped into the swirling storm, asking journalist-politician Akbar to either resign as minister of state for external affairs or offer a satisfactory explanation to the allegations by women journalists who had worked with him in the past.
The government maintained silence with Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad refusing to comment when asked to do so in a press conference.
“How can he be in the ministry with serious allegations being levelled against him by responsible journalists who worked with him. Let there be an inquiry into it,” Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said as three more journalists came forward with their allegations against Akbar.
One of them, Ghazala Wahab, detailed the harassment and molestation she faced during her first job in the Asian Age when Akbar was editor.
Describing her trauma in graphic detail, Wahab wrote in The Wire that it took her a while to process the abuse and open up about it.
Singers Kailash Kher, Raghu Dixit, commentator Suhel Seth and woman comic star Aditi Mittal were among the names that surfaced as the movement against the spectrum of sexual misconduct escalated.
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said allegations of sexual harassment should be taken seriously as women are often scared to speak out.
