There has been stoic silence in the left-liberal cabal since the allegations of sexual assault has surfaced against Vinod Dua who happens to be a member of the same tribe. Many prominent faces quit their jobs after charges of sexual allegations leveled against them. However, likes of Vinod Dua are still earning their bread and butter smoothly. None of the Lutyens’ media journalists are asking him to step down. In fact, in a new low, The Wire not only backed Vinod Dua, but also allowed him to issue a clarification that reeks more of victim shaming rather than coming clean on the allegations and proving his innocence.
For those unaware, under the MeToo banner, Nishtha Jain posted her ordeal on Facebook where she accused Vinod Dua of not only passing lewd comments at her, but also verbally abusing her and stalking her when she resisted. She also criticized his daughter and comedienne MallikaDua for her hypocritical stance, when her own father was allegedly guilty of such crimes.
After Nishtha Jain, another journalist and a documentary filmmaker, Sunita Thakur has narrated her ordeal. She accused Vinod Dua of inappropriate behavior.
In an article published on scroll.in, she recalls an incident with her in 1986, when she had newly arrived in Delhi and was searching for a job. To cut the long thing short, Vinod Dua had promised her a job in Newsline, a show about to be aired by Doordarshan.
Sunita writes, “I remember driving that late afternoon, along Aurobindo Marg by INA market, his (Vinod Dua) left arm around my shoulder, his right on the steering wheel, his singing romantic Hindi songs. I remember taking his arm off my shoulder and saying, “I think this belongs to you.” He wondered why I was being so coy, after all “English girls had a reputation.” I remember laughing and thinking how inane that was.”
Sunita further says as she was discussing details of her new job with Vinod Dua, he suddenly said “our relationship would be open.” “Relationship?”, Sunita asked. Then Dua said, “Our professional relationship would be open in every way, not exclude anything.” Sunita further added, “His was a meandering style, the small secretive smile on his lips, and goodness knows I was so naïve. It took me some time to understand that “our separate rooms” when traveling could also become a double when Vinod wished it to be. Did he imply this or explicitly state it on my pushing him to clarify, again I don’t remember. The fury, the embarrassment at not being taken seriously, the sense that this was somehow my failing, I do remember. Finally, as he dropped me off at home, I got out, told him to fuck off and take his job with him. Later I would wish I had been more combative, understood more quickly where it was leading, less hopeful at the start
She told about the encounter between her and Vinod Dua to her many friends but they continued to work with Vinod Dua and socialized with him.
The most shocking part of her article is as followed: “I accepted that he was on “our side”, of the liberal, the left, and that some things have to be overlooked for the sake of a larger cause. But now, not only is the MeToo campaign puncturing holes in the perspective of he’s “creative”, “left” or just “a nice guy”, but also, Vinod Dua’s righteous indignation at filmmaker’s Nishtha Jain’s accusations, like MJ Akbar’s and others’, is too much to stomach.”
That's a woke feminist writing how she continued to bear sexual harassment for the larger cause of "Left Unity". If ideology is greater than injustice of any kind then how can they claim to be liberal? #illiberalleft pic.twitter.com/ZJJTjFke7R
— Monica (@TrulyMonica) October 20, 2018
This woman journalist is writing against @VinodDua7 and how she continued to protect him because he was on "their side". So for left "sides" and "ideological unity" are more important than justice. Does that mean all the left organizations are full of sexual predators?
— Monica (@TrulyMonica) October 20, 2018
It seems that the left-liberal cabal is full of sexual predators, there are many more victims of sexual predatory behavior of the cabal, but they are afraid to come out. They are afraid of delegitimizating ‘their own side’. Likes of Vinod Dua have brainwashed girls/women to extent of believing that tolerating, accepting and embracing ‘inappropriate behavior’ of the cabal are just small sacrifices that can be made in the interest of their misplaced ‘larger goal’ which right now seems to be defeating PM Modi at any cost.
The scroll also went to Vinod Dua for his comments on the allegations leveled against him. He said, “I do not know the lady in question at all, as far as I can recollect. Of course, I deny the allegation. As you may be aware, The Wire has constituted a committee to look into the other allegation, you refer to. In the circumstances, I do not consider it appropriate to say much more at this stage. There does, however, appear to be an effort to target my program Jan Gan Man ki Baat on The Wire, which has, for the last more than one-and-a-half years, confronted the highest and the mightiest in the land.”
This is a very cheap comment to say the least. But this is nothing new coming from Vinod Dua. He stooped to a new low when he described allegations against him as “keechad” on his show on The Wire.
By describing the allegations as “keechad”, Vinod Dua is discrediting the #MeToo movement. Oh and how convenient to declare that in his case the allegations don’t actually amount to sexual harassment. Why allow him your platform for this, @thewire_in ? pic.twitter.com/yWcC5A4Yi8
— SamSays (@samjawed65) October 17, 2018
Now it would be interesting to see whether the likes of Vinod Dua and Siddharth Bhatia of The Wire, who are accused of sexually harassing and insulting their fellow colleagues would step down from their posts at The Wire or not. No one is asking them to step down. The cabal in fact went to the extent of defending them. The cabal has different standards for different sexual assaulters. There are good sexual assaulters and bad sexual assaulters. It seems Vinod Dua is former one and that’s why the cabal is sympathizing with him so much.
