4 min readFeb 13, 2026 07:51 AM IST
First published on: Feb 13, 2026 at 06:47 AM IST
This is one of the harder columns I have written. No insights on public policy. No breakdown of federal schemes. No analysis of ill-thought-out tariffs, examination of vote margins, or commentary on a session in Parliament. No, none of that noise. This column today is about silence. Silence that long existed deafeningly. Silence that was once broken courageously. And a silence that seems to have made its way back in… silently.
Eight years ago, women in India spoke out. They drew their breath in, steadied themselves and spoke truth to power. These truths were spoken with the hope that they wouldn’t just delete delusions, but tear down entire structures. The MeToo movement wasn’t simply a moment in time, but a moment of reckoning. But today, when predators masquerading as television panelists, among others, make their way back into the public mainstream, a moment of reflection seems imperative.
Senior Advocate Rebecca John fought the MeToo battle from the legal frontlines. She explained to me: “The MeToo movement was premised on the survivors breaking the veil of silence that sustained routine abuses of power in the workplace and elsewhere. Many women faced serious backlash, including being sued. However, even in those cases where survivors emerged successful, the men have faced no consequential loss of social or cultural power.
On the contrary, we have witnessed the quiet but seamless rehabilitation of these men within their circles of power. In some of the more prominent cases in the past few years, the survivors suffered abhorrent instances of sexual violence and made the hard choice to report them. However, their cases failed to meet the forensic standards of judicial scrutiny, owing to gaps in investigation that were either deliberate or stemming from incompetence. Simultaneously, the survivors have been subjected to public campaigns of relentless vilification, compounded by the unsuccessful outcomes of prosecution.
This experience of double victimisation — of violence and vilification — must account for two things. One, there is a staggering differential in social capital and class power between survivors and perpetrators. And two, the institutional culture in courts and investigating agencies has resisted any significant change.”
Critics often say that India has already addressed workplace harassment through the POSH Act. The Act was progressive in 2013, presuming a formal employer and fixed workplace. But large segments of today’s economy, including the gig economy, media and entertainment, operate through contractual, freelance or informal arrangements. An advocate of the Calcutta High Court who preferred to remain anonymous explained: “We’ve all faced this evil at some point in our work lives; the legal fraternity cannot be left far behind. Whether it’s been a gentle question being asked by a judge of the High Court why a woman advocate wears the ‘pants’, or being asked for lewd favours by chamber seniors for ‘goodies’ in return, who do we address our concerns to? The SHe-Box is missing. POSH training is avoided as it is perceived to give women ideas to exploit the law.”
There is no statute in India that addresses public disclosures of sexual misconduct in contexts of power. India did not respond to MeToo with a new legal framework. Instead, existing laws, particularly defamation, came to govern what followed. Against the backdrop of the current context, senior journalist Saba Naqvi added, “Men who build acceptability within the current system have quietly resurrected their lives”.
Entrenched patriarchal mores are the reason for the conspicuous absence of genuine outrage against those accused in the MeToo movement. Instead of anger, anguish or indignation, there is a certain smirking complicity, a nudge-nudge wink-wink acceptance, a sly laughing brush-off, as if incidents of assault are nothing more than a locker-room joke. Where is the civil society pushback and condemnation against someone powerful who thinks nothing of taunting and mocking women leaders in public? When those accused of serious assault on women are still invited to lit fests and elegant soirées, we are faced with a glaring truth:
Misogyny has been mainstreamed in our society today.
The writer is MP and leader, All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party. Additional research credit: Chahat Mangtani, Varnika Mishra
