Sona Mohapatra on Sajid Khan getting national platform: Should we be part of the ‘culture of silence’

Of late, there’s been a lot of uproar around #MeToo accused Sajid Khan getting a national platform and singer Sona Mohapatra is disappointed to see the #MeToo movement getting diluted in India. With the filmmaker making it to national television with a reality show, she wonders if one should be a part of the “culture of silence”.

“If we speak up, we lose. If we don’t, we lose. That is the Hobsons choice facing women who spoke up in India MeToo right now. Should we provide free PR and publicity to TV show’s diabolical marketing teams and channels giving a hero’s welcome, seats of authority & whitewashing serial sex offenders like Sajjid Khan, Anu Malik, Vikas Behl & many more? Should we avoid bathing in the troll mud-bath that follows making our identity that of controversial trouble-makers, liars, attention hungry & worse or should we be part of the ‘culture of silence’ & normalise this,” she says.

The singer continues, “Thereby putting the message out to the world that yes, if you are a woman wanting to be a professional, earn a living & working, you need to be able to suck up & ‘deal with it’. The latter isn’t even an option for me & I am sure for the many brave ones in my sisterhood speaking up at the cost of their careers & mental peace”.

Mohapatra shared her #MeToo story in 2018 when the movement was at its peak in India. She had accused singer Kailash Kher and music composer Anu Malik of sexual misconduct.

Here, she notes that she understands that systematic change doesn’t happen overnight, and there are miles to go to reach that point.

“But the least we can expect is an apology from some of these men. I expect the good people who care about the good fight and celebrate ‘womanhood’ on Navratri to actually be in our corner. Others who are happy to reap the rewards of being poster boys of ‘women’s causes’ by virtue signalling with organisations like MARD should actually stand up, speak up & act in such important junctures and not when the problem is conveniently elsewhere; because yes; charity indeed begins at home,” she says.

In fact, she also calls for retuning of the justice systems while dealing with the cases of systemic abuse. She points out, “I reached out to the NCW with several testimonies of women who had spoken up about facing abuse in the hands of Anu Malik, some who were minors, but unfortunately they are merely a toothless organisation on paper with no real powers, led by people with no formal education in gender studies or grassroots experience”.

“Unless, we have re-looked and retuned this justice system to be able to deal with systemic serial abuse of power and harassment, don’t even dare shift the blame on the survivors of the same,” she adds.

Wrapping up, she slams people from the small screen industry for giving Sajid the platform.

“The TV channels are a dying media is clear to me because while the OTT platforms are not only creating more relevant, successful content for audiences but have pivoted after the Me Too movement and become extremely sensitive to such matters with systems in place. The former are gasping for breath to survive by resorting to these low-brow and dangerous choices of glorifying perverts to get cheap publicity. So I would call the glass half full because there has been some change in the industry for the better,” she ends.