Undoubtedly, considerable discomfiture is being experienced by former Hindi television news anchor Vinod Dua whose news and current affairs video show on The Wire platform has been suspended indefinitely following his “trivialisation” of sexual harassment charges pertaining to 1989 made against him by Nishitha Jain, a film producer. Jain recently outed Dua for stalking and attempting to force himself upon her three decades ago. Even as an internal committee of this righteous online daily is investigating Jain’s complaint, in a recent telecast on The Wire’s platform, Dua made comments disparaging the #MeToo women’s movement which has exposed several sex predators in the entertainment and media industries, denying Jain’s detailed charge against him, and accusing her of throwing keechud (mud) on him. This breach of protocol has forced the editors of The Wire to suspend Dua’s Monday-Friday current affairs show. Your editor entertains little doubt that The Wire’s internal complaints committee, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, will uphold Jain’s sexual harassment charge against Dua because the latter is accustomed to misusing his position of authority. Way back in the 1990s, your editor was commissioned by Dua to conduct a television interview with Tata Steel chairman the late Russi Modi, with a brief to highlight his bon vivant employee-friendly management style. When the video shot over a full day, was aired on Dua’s subaltern television channel, your editor was completely cut out of all frames, with my contribution reduced to a disembodied voice. Reports from his colleagues indicated that Dua was infuriated by your editor’s handsome visage and customised tailoring, which was — and remains — a sharp contrast to his amphibious looks and personality. In the circumstances, readers will surely forgive a surge of schadenfreude.
