The #MeToo waves hit Indian shores too after creating ripples in the US recently. It spread like a wildfire and engulfed many stars in various spheres of life including entertainment and media industry. It was kick-started in Bollywood by Tanushree Dutta who revealed sexual abuse by Nana Patekar years ago.
The sparks of it can be seen in the sporting world too. Recently Indian badminton player Jwala Gutta spoke about the mental harassment she had to face by a coach but not yet revealed any names.” Since 2006, this person became the Chief; he threw me out of the national team. I was out of the national team again when I returned from Rio. One of the reasons why I stopped playing.”
The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist reiterated her allegations of being targeted in the selection process too in a series of tweets she posted.
Indian shuttler, PV Sindhu on Wednesday lauds the MeToo Movement and said, ”I appreciate that people come forward and spoken about it. I respect it.”
Earlier this month, Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of raping Kathryn Mayorga at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009 which initially surfaced as ‘fake news’ just because it came out in public after 10 years and to dissolve the issue a legal ‘non-disclosure’ agreement was being signed, but Ronaldo’s lawyer claimed that there was no such document and the football legend is being framed. But a few weeks later, Las Vegas police found the ‘non-disclosure’ agreement and now the Ronaldo admits that he did sign the agreement because he was under the charge of his lawyers and that he is still innocent as he didn’t sexually assault Kathryn Mayorga. Ronaldo’s lawyer Peter Christiansen said in an interview, “Although Cristiano Ronaldo is accustomed to media attention, inherent in the fact that he is a famous person, it is absolutely deplorable that the media continue to propagate and stimulate an intentional defamation campaign based on stolen and easily manipulated digital documents.
“Cristiano Ronaldo has mandated his lawyers in the United States and Europe to deal with all legal aspects and expresses full confidence that the truth will prevail, despite the corruption of counter-information, and in which the laws of Nevada will be enforced and respected.”
As the allegations of the sexual harassment continue to roil the media, the result of the hard work of # MeToo is yet to come.
