“There will be a statement later on” was all that the Union Minister MJ Akbar had said after he landed in India from his African trip.
Minister Akbar had arrived in Delhi TODAY morning at 08:45 AM amid calls for his resignation over #MeToo allegations from several women that took place earlier this week.
The Union Minister remained mum over the matter and was escorted to his car, waiting for him at the airport, with full security.
The junior Foreign Minister was in Nigeria when his name cropped up in the #METOO allegation that several women charged him. Most of the women who accused him are journalists who worked with him earlier during his days as an editor.
The former journalist-turned-politician was first named as a #MeToo accused by journalists Priya Ramani who tweeted that her article in Vogue in 2017 on sexual harassment was against him.
Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale was more direct. “MJ Akbar should resign if charges are proven true,” he said.
Maneka Gandhi, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, too asked for an investigation against him.
Political parties like Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen have demanded Akbar’s removal as a minister.
While the opposition has demanded that AJ Akbar be ousted from his position, his party- the BJP is yet to comment on the issue.
BJP President Amit Shah at an event said: “We haven’t heard anything from his (MJ Akbar) side, so it is really difficult to comment anything on that at the moment. People can put anything against anyone on any website, so we have to probe the charges and see whether it is true or not and whether this incident ever happened or not. Even you can say anything against me on a website, so we’ll evaluate and then we will decide our next step.”
The final decision on whether Akbar would continue in the government would be taken by the highest level of leadership in the party soon.
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