Tarun Tejpal, Tehelka lose credibility
It's easy for a person to condemn others to demonstrate a sense of righteousness, but the real test comes when the person is at the receiving end of similar condemnation. Does the response of the accused then approximate to that which he or she had campaigned for in the case of others similarly charged in the pastIJ Or does the self-righteous accused suddenly discover different yardsticks to extricate himself or herself out of the situationIJ The answer to this demonstrates the moral high ground the person under the scanner has taken or the hypocrisy he or she has indulged in. By these accounts, Mr Tarun Tejpal is on a sticky wicket and has lost all credibility. His magazine (and website) flourished over the years by conducting ‘sting operations' — some of them dubious in motive — against public figures. The magazine claimed that it was engaged in cleansing the system and doing public service. But now, the editor-in-chief of Tehelka stands accused of molesting his colleague, not once but twice in a span of two days. It's a grave allegation, but all that Mr Tejpal, who has demanded the strictest punishment short of death to the ‘accused' in the stings, has done in response to the sex scandal is to recuse himself from his job at Tehelka for six months. In addition, he has apologised for the ‘lapse of judgement'. Many people his organisation had caught on tape could well argue the same, but did Tehelka plead for them the benefit of the generous treatment which Mr Tejpal is hoping to get away withIJ If anything, his alleged crime is greater than that of the many unfortunate ones he and his people have trapped over the years. Of course, given the media glare, the insistence of the victim that she is less than satisfied with Mr Tejpal's response and the determination of the Government of Goa — the shameful incident took place in that State earlier this month — it is unlikely that Mr Tejpal's hope of a quiet burial of the case will be met. Justice demands that the issue is taken to its logical conclusion as the law of the land demands. Organisations such as the National Commission for Women must ensure that the victim gets justice. An apology for a mistake is understandable; for a crime, punishment has to come.
Disgusting as Mr Tejpal's conduct has been, it is matched by the response of Tehelka's new in-charge, Shoma Chaudhury. She has claimed that the incident is an “internal matter” of her organisation and that the media has no business to poke its nose as it was not an “aggrieved party”. In the first place, one wonders why the new editor-in-chief, who has on many occasions in the recent past waxed eloquent on the need to tackle sexual harassment of women in the country, should be so plainly defensive over an incident where her boss is clearly in the wrong — and this is indisputable. Not only has the ‘intrepid' journalist gone out of her way to play down the alleged crime, which, incidentally, is no private affair, she had apparently done little even when she came to first know of the incident. The fact that the Tehelka management (from which she cannot be disassociated) widely circulated within the organisation Mr Tejpal's reply of atonement but suppressed the victim's long letter detailing her harrowing experience, points to a whitewash job in progress.