Now a #MenToo movement to 'expose' harassment by women
Bengaluru, Oct 21: On the lines of #Metoo, a group of 15 people, including a former French diplomat acquitted in a sexual abuse case in 2017, has launched a #MenToo movement, asking men to come out and speak openly about the sexual harassment faced by them at the hands of women.
The campaign was launched here Saturday by NGO Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (Crisp) to protest against the #Metoo movement, false cases aganist men among others.
Speaking on the occasion, National President of Crisp, Kumar V Jahgirdar said the group would fight for gender neutral laws and demand punishment for those filing false cases under #MeToo campaign.
Noting that #MeToo was a good movement, he however said it should not be misused to fix somebody by levelling false allegations.
"This movement has only resulted in bringing disrepute to men who have worked hard to earn respect in society," he said.
Later, talking to reporters, Jahgirdar said unlike #MeToo victims, who bring about sexual abuse stories that happened a couple of decades ago, the #MenToo stories would be related to recent incidents.
On #MeToo movement, Jahgirdar further said if the affected women have genuine case of sexual misbehaviour, they should take legal recourse, instead of putting out stories on social media.
Former French diplomat Pascal Mazurier, who was accused of sexually abusing his daughter and later acquitted by a city court in 2017 also took part in the protest.
He said #MenToo campaign was not at all a counter to #MeToo campaign, but to address the problems of men who do not speak up against women's atrocities.
"There is real pain among men.. They are also suffering, but they are not coming out in the open against women and their misdemeanors," he said.
The false allegations levelled on men in #MeToo campaign not only destroys children's future, but also families, Pascal noted.
"We make laws to protect women. That is fine, but let us not forget half of humanity are men," he added.
Pascal is facing a court battle after his wife had moved the Karnataka High Court challenging a city-based court's verdict acquitting him.
Pascal's wife has custody of their three children.
The #Me Too movement has gathered pace over the past few days with a number of women speaking out on sexual harassment at their workplace and support for them has been pouring in from various quarters.
Former Union Minister MJ Akbar, film personalities like Alok Nath, Subhash Ghai, Nana Patekar and Vairamuthu have been accused of sexual harassment by a number of women under the #MeToo movement.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
