More #MeToo charges against Jatin Das

A bevy of fresh sexual misconduct allegations have been levelled against Padma Bhushan recipient artist Jatin Das in an article that appeared in the Caravan magazine’s November issue. Altogether 11 women have come out to speak against the artist in the article. The #MeToo allegations against actor Nandita Das’s father started on October 16, when conservationist Nisha Bora accused Das of sexually harassing her at his Khidki village studio in 2004.She had recalled in a tweet that it was on her second visit to the studio that the artist tried to prey on her. “The next thing I knew, he attempted to grab me. I wriggled out of his embrace, flustered. Then he did it again. This time, he managed a clumsy kiss on my lips,” Bora had tweeted.
In the Caravan article, allegations are also levelled by Indo-Canadian journalist Shree Paradkar, who first met Das when she was a young reporter working in the Times of India, Bengaluru, in the mid-1990s. During an interview, Paradkar alleges that Das had kissed her cheek, “very close to her mount on her jawline and her neck”. When the artist had not listened to her protests, she had to push him. Disturbed by the turn of events, she had rushed to a friend’s house and confided in her. “I just cried, and just howled away,” Paradkar told the magazine. But she finally filed the interview and it was published within a few days.
Various other women, on conditions of anonymity, have shared their experiences. Some have alleged that the artist had breached personal spaces. One of the allegations is from a journalist who said he would sit very “close” to her when she was working on the computer. “He was sitting this close to me, this close that I was sure he could smell my breath, and I knew I could smell his” – she alleged. But the lady told the magazine that she hadn’t spoken out then because it was her “first or second professional experience”, and she was worried about being branded a “touch-me-not”.
The article goes on to stress the fact that there has been no closure for these women, whose lives had been impacted negatively by their encounters with Das. “Till now, as far as Das was concerned, his routine harassment of women had been just that: a part of a routine that did not tarnish his reputation or interfere with his larger-than-life persona,” the article said. Bora has also wondered what happens next. “Should this individual be allowed to hold the country’s third highest civilian award? If yes, what does it say about us as a country?” Bora has raised this question.
Since October, the artist has, however, been refuting the charges, calling them “vulgar”. “I don’t know who they are. It’s so painful and vulgar. Anyone can say anything about anybody and it gets published… There might be truth to both sides, but it’s the innocent which loses dignity,” he has reportedly said.
His daughter, Nandita, who has been a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement, said she will continue to support the movement “despite the disturbing allegations made against my father”.