A controversial case of sexual harassment following a complaint lodged by a female contract staffer of the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata has come at a most sensitive time in the affairs of West Bengal when the state is going through a multi-phase Lok Sabha election.
The legal implications are hard to fathom as a governor, as functioning head of state in a high constitutional post, enjoys immunity from criminal proceedings. But it is not as if governors have not been caught in compromising situations or positions.
Given the caustic nature of West Bengal politics, which is an extreme case of bristling Centre-state relations, there is no knowing whether it is a motivated complaint or governor C.V. Ananda Bose represents the patriarchal side of the general misogyny that rules the country.
It would be in the fitness of things to say that anyone occupying high constitutional office should, like Caesar’s wife, be above suspicion and his/her behaviour must be so impeccable as to be way above the casting of the least aspersion in terms of sexual behaviour.
Governors may be politically active as is an extreme trend these days, particularly in Opposition-ruled states, but there should be little room for anyone even to say there cannot be smoke without fire when a woman comes forward with a police complaint of sexual harassment.
In fact, it is people in power who appear to be the most inclined to be cavalier when it comes to their dealing with women. The case of the Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, grandson of a former Prime Minister, acutely reflects how authority tends to prevaricate when it comes to acting by the book against those wielding some form of political power.
What the #MeToo movement of the 2010s that sprang up in the US taught most was that any complaint of sexual harassment of a person of any sex must be thoroughly investigated, no matter how high his or her place in society or in the rungs of authority.
A big attitudinal change must come about in men, who are more often accused of being perpetrators of sexual harassment, with those accused of such deviant behaviour forced to face probes and clear their names if they are innocent. It is not so much the law as the test of morality that must be passed to show men can control the beast in them.
