On the contrary: Me too? Whatever

Possibly the best thing about social media is that it enables the high-minded to indulge in the delightful pastime of virtue-signalling without having to leave the comfort of their homes. One is referring to what seems to have become the clarion call for women across the globe: the "Me too" campaign, embellished with hashtag. For the benefit of those who have a real, as opposed to a virtual life, the movement was kick-started on Oct 15th in response to allegations against Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, by the actress Alyssa Milano who tweeted,"If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem," she said.

This triggered a trans-Atlantic avalanche with 12 million responses on the first day and the messy stuff really hit the fans (no pun intended) when the actor Martin Clunes suggested, perhaps unwisely, that actresses flirted with producers in a most unseemly manner. Rod Liddle took a more balanced view suggesting that "women are hard-wired to be attracted to powerful men or have been schooled to be so by the inequalities in our society." Matters became complicated when the Star Trek actor Tony Rapp upset the feminist applecart by claiming that Kevin Spacey hit on him way back in 1986. Within minutes, 11 other guys stepped up to the plate saying, "Me too", which caused no small amount of angst to my feminist friends. "Yaar, I would never have hash-tagged if I knew this Rapp-shapp and that HarryDreyfuss were going to hijack the campaign. I feel guys should have started something else…" Perhaps they could take the Canadian route with "MoiAussi" or the Israeli one which says "Us Too" in Hebrew?

The award winning journalist Guy Talese added rocket fuel to the debate by saying that he would like to ask Kevin Spacey "how it feels to lose a lifetime of success and hard work all because of 10 minutes of indiscretion 31 years ago."Talese went on to defend Spacey against the allegations adding, "So, OK, it happened years ago," he said. "Jesus, suck it up once in a while!"

Like saying there might be two sides to a story, the advice to man-up is probably a very dangerous suggestion given the hysterically screechy tone of the entire social media campaign. As Liddle suggests, "any attempted caveat, any nervously muttered, 'Um, but on the other hand…' will incur a vilification as extreme  as if one had committed these acts of harassment oneself". The saddest outcome is the moronic decision by Netflix to can Season 6 of the magnificent, "House of Cards", and the even more imbecilic decision by Sony to pull the movie, "All the Money in the World" from an upcoming film festival. But maybe I am being cynical and both companies are doing it based on principle, not money;I guess the title of the film is purely a coincidence.

That apart, it is amazing and ever so slightly ironic that many of those who blather on about victims' rights and age of consent remain, through choice or ignorance, utterly oblivious of the elephant in the Indian drawing room: child marriage. It took a recent Supreme Court judgment to clarify what should have been blindingly evident these past 70 years: if the girl is below 18, it is statutory rape, even if the parties are legally married. Like I said earlier, activism is much simpler these days: no need for any arduous treks to the Narmada valley, no need to brave the heat, dust and mosquitoes with the great unwashed at JantarMantar or, closer to home, at Freedom Park, just log on to FB or MySpace and hit the "like" button.

I recently met up with a hard-core activist, Niti, who campaigns tirelessly on behalf of the nation's dispossessed. His causes range from Bhopal victims and manual scavengers to the truly unfortunate: those who fall between the cracks of our apology for a social welfare system in India, with or without the Aadharhashtag. He remained aloof while the 'Me too' debate raged and smiled gently when asked whether he was in favour of the campaign. Clearly here was a man with other fish to fry and far loftier priorities in mind. American morals rarely survive a trans-Atlantic crossing and in most, if not all casting couch transactions, the balance of power tends to shift. Think Angelina Jolie. Once you've asked the right questions and stumbled towards a sensible answer, the whole foundation for this confected outrage begins to crumble and you realize that the great Indian rope trick is perfecting the art of hypocrisy.