New Delhi/Mumbai: The pushback against the #MeToo wave that has swept through the ranks of the powerful with scores of women narrating their alleged experiences of sexual harassment began Monday with Union minister M J Akbar filing a criminal defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani.
"By instituting a case of criminal defamation against me, Akbar has made his stand clear: rather than engage with the serious allegations that many women have made against him, he seeks to silence them through intimidation and harassment," Ramani said after the minister of state for external affairs filed his case in a Delhi court.
"Needless to say, I am ready to fight allegations of defamation laid against me, as truth and the absolute truth is my only defence," Ramani said.
Akbar has filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani, who was the first one to name him.
The minister has accused Ramani of "wilfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously" defaming him and has sought her prosecution under the penal provision on defamation.
In his first statement on Sunday after returning from Nigeria, Akbar responded to the demands for his resignation by terming the accusations against him "false, fabricated and deeply distressing".
On Monday, he was back at work, attending meetings at the Ministry of External Affairs.
Ghazala Wahab, who wrote a graphic account of her alleged prolonged harassment at the hands of Akbar, wrote in The Wire that Akbar's statement was "rambling" and "full of tired cliches".
Several people, including lawyers, rallied around Ramani, offering help in meeting her legal expenses and some appealed on social media for crowdfunding.
"It is not about agreeing or disagreeing. He has presented his version," Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said in the party's first reaction to the allegations against Akbar.
The pressure for his resignation continued to build up.