When bosses attack

“I feel atonement cannot be just words… I am, therefore, offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka… for the next six months.” Tarun Tejpal’s letter, has irony written all over it. The big boss of Tehelka, known for his various sting operations on the mighty and powerful, now a national headline for a “bad lapse of judgement” inside a hotel lift.

The “unfortunate incident” (a description of the alleged crime by Tejpal in his now famous ‘Aton-ement’ email) involved his own employee and what’s more shocking is the claim that the victim is a “good friend” of Tejpal’s daughter. Due to abusive messages on Twitter, Tejpal’s daughter Tiya Tejpal has since left the service.

ut besides these developments, here’s what you can learn from this incident. How can you protect yourself from the most senior man, or woman in your office? And are there laws in place to protect women in the private sector?

Yes there are, and these set of rules, backed by the Supreme Court, are called the Vishaka Guidelines. And it seems like Tehelka has taken a path in exactly the opposite direction.

Ever since the journo’s complaint, Tehelka has been busy trying to organise a farcical “coffee-table” scenario, with an internal committee looking into the allegations, without invo-lvement from the outside.

Senior AP High Court advocate explains: “Constituting an internal committee in private organisations is important. But we need to make sure that there is a retired, or even a senior judge who is part of that committee — a professional, non-biased third party, who can assess the volume of the case. Also, the victim can file an FIR at the police station that has jurisdiction in the area but for the private sector, the referral is the set of Vishaka Guidelines.”

And even these guidelines, need to be handled with care.

“There is no question of loopholes in the Vishaka judgement. The loopholes are in our consistent refusal to understand them. Look at Tehelka, a media house, so many exposés and they don’t even have a sexual harassment committee in place. Isn’t that strange?” asks Vasanth Kannabiran, chairperson of the Hyderabad-based organisation Asmita Collective.

She explained further, “The problem comes when the institution decides it is an internal matter. In Tehelka’s case, managing editor Shoma Chaudhury was wiling to accept the accused’s recusal and apology. It is not her call. An SH committee should have an outsider, who is aware of the issue, and members from different ranks, including office assistants. Chaudhury simply tried to hush up the whole thing, until protests got too loud.

“Women must learn to shout out when there is injustice. Bosses often tend to believe they are above law and feel an apology is enough. But they must stand before an enquiry committee and take humbly, the strictest punishment offered. Sexual harrassment at work has driven countless women to depression and suicide and health problems. Their right to dignity and development has been compromised by the ‘temple bull’ conduct of men in power. This is punishable.”

In Hyderabad, a few firms even have workshops on workplace sexual harassment.

“Firms are increasingly investing in a lot in staff training to deal with such issues — not just during their orientation, but the company mandates each person to take up such courses every year,” says Suman Reddy, vice-president and managing director of PegaSystems.

“And it doesn’t matter, if it’s the company’s boss, who is involved. We will ensure that a human resources team is available and reachable for the staff without any doubt... whatsoever.”

Also, Ms Kannabiran adds that women must overall, never accept or forget.

“These are not internal matters. Sexual harrassment is now rife in universities, government departments and many other offices and my message is that, each office MUST have an SH committee, which women can approach when they need it.”

“Women must stop feeling guilty and say loud and clear, that this is not, okay.”

Excerpts from the victim’s letter

• “As we made our way out of the elevator, Mr Tejpal pulled me back into the lift and I then realised that he was simply pressing buttons on the lift’s panel to make the elevator stay in circuit”.
• After the first assault, He said: “It’s alright to be in love with more than one person,” and then he said, “Well, this is the easiest way for you to keep your job.” 
• “I turned away from him. Within seconds of my turning around, he started to lift up my dress.”
• “I had to process the fact that it was Tarun who molested me — my father’s ex-colleague and friend, Tiya’s dad, and someone I had so deeply respected and admired for so many years.”