It Goes Back A Long Way
If at all there is to be a heroine of the Indian #MeToo movement, that is currently naming and shaming sexual predators on social media, it is Rupan Deol Bajaj. For those who are too young to remember, Bajaj, an IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, accused the much-admired KPS Gill—then Director General of Police, Punjab-- of outraging her modesty. At a party in July 1988, at the Chandigarh residence of the then Punjab Financial Commissioner SL Kapoor, Gill patted her butt and propositioned her. One can imagine the gathering of highly placed government officials--and Gill had the temerity to do such a thing, because he must have been sure that no woman would have the nerve to object, and certainly not to drag him to court. Her husband, BR Bajaj, also a senior IAS officer, stood by her, when the case became high-profile because of the people involved, and a majority of the people of our country felt that she was making a big fuss over a trivial issue.. Women, who go through m...