Tarun Tejpal dropped out of Litfest due to ‘extraneous noise’
Tehelka founder has earlier been accused of raping a junior colleague
Mumbai: Tarun Tejpal, the former editor-in-chief and publisher of the weekly Tehelka, who had “recused” himself from his position for six months, after an allegation of him repeatedly sexually assaulting a junior journalist at the magazine is back in the news once again. This time though for being invited as a guest on two occasions at the Times Literary Festival in Mumbai which was to be held from December 5 to December 7.
We have asked Tarun Tejpal to drop out of the TOI Litfest. We've got a great program & we don't want it hijacked by extraneous noise.
— bachi karkaria (@bachikarkaria) November 24, 2014Twitteratis swelled with anger at the invitation, many of them hinting at it to be a publicity campaign for Tarun Tejpal:Dreadful of #ToiLitFest to normalise sexual assault, rehabilitate man accused of 'tyranny of power' by inviting him, that too for same topic
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) November 23, 2014On the ToIlitfest: expressed my concerns to the organizers over the issue of inviting an accused in a #VAW case, will wait to hear back.
— Nilanjana Roy (@nilanjanaroy) November 24, 2014So Tarun Tejpal going to speak on "Tyranny of Power" at Times Litfest? He getting a platform like this in itself is "tyranny of power" #sad
— Pradeep Menon (@MenonPradeep76) November 22, 2014The issue is, Tarun Tejpal was arrested a year ago and his trial hasn't even begun. We were told BJP govt in Goa was biased against him??
— Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) November 24, 2014Senior Journalist Swapan Dasgupta has also tweeted that Bachi Karkaria, has confirmed that the controversial invitation has been "withdrawn". Just received word from @bachikarkaria that the controversial invitation has been "withdrawn". Twitter pressure works, even on mega media.
— Swapan Dasgupta (@swapan55) November 24, 2014TimesLitFest has a right to draw up its own guest list. I have the right to stay away on grounds I'll be a misfit. Have communicated this.
— Swapan Dasgupta (@swapan55) November 23, 2014 Tejpal had been accused of rape by a junior colleague in November 2013. Tweeting on Sunday night, Dasgupta said that just as the festival organisers had the right to invite any person of their choice as a guest, he as a guest had every right to withdraw his participation. Interestingly, Tejpal's name has now been removed from the festival schedule for now.