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A
former colleague at The Statesman, Kolkata, Ms.
Rina Mukherji, has made certain shocking allegations
about a colleague of ours, Ishan Joshi, in an
e-mail entitled "Fighting Sexual Harassment
- My Personal Experience" that has been
circulated all around the world. Some of the allegations
made by her are part of proceedings preferred
by her and pending before the Labour Commissioner,
Government of West Bengal, and we would not like
to comment on these. However, there are other
very serious allegations that are false to our
knowledge and these deserve to be highlighted.
1.
In her e-mail, Ms. Mukherji has alleged that Mr.
Joshi was not just pawing her in the corridors,
but even in the News Room, in full view of every
one. She has further alleged that Mr. Joshi's
hands would always be on hers, if she ever happened
to be within range, notwithstanding the presence
of the Chief Reporter, the News Editors, and sundry
senior and junior colleagues.
This
allegation is a lie. We work in an open-plan news
room, a hall measuring approximately 60 feet by
60 feet. Workstations are arranged in such a manner
that each of us either faces the wall, or other
colleagues. There are four glass cabins, occupied
by Mr. Joshi, the Art Director, the Assistant
Editor (Features) and the News Editor/Deputy News
Editor. These cabins DO NOT have full height partitions.
None
of us have ever seen Mr. Joshi paw Ms. Mukherji,
either in the News Room, or in the corridors or
elsewhere. Each of us has seen interactions between
Mr. Joshi and Ms. Mukherji on various occasions
during her employment at The Statesman, and can
state without reservation that these were always
professional.
2.
Ms. Mukherji has alleged that several people were
provoked to whisper or look quizzically by Mr.
Joshi's alleged conduct.
This,
too, is a lie. As no incidents of the sort she
described took place, the question of there having
been such reactions does not arise.
3.
Ms. Mukherji has alleged that from July-end the
harassment reached such levels that Mr. Joshi
would stalk her all over the office and paw her
all the time. She has stated further that by this
time she had made friends in the office and was
able to confide in them.
This,
too, is a lie. Any one who has visited The Statesman
will bear out that ours is an open office and
that kind of actions Ms. Mukherji talks about
are just not possible. Further, we can - each
one of us - confirm that Ms. Mukherji never complained
of any form of sexual harassment during the period
of her employment with The Statesman to any of
us.
4.
Ms. Mukherji claims that the formation of a Sexual
Harassment Committee at The Statesman was somehow
a consequence of her efforts.
This,
too, is a lie. In June 2002, many of us were present
at a staff meeting where the Managing Editor,
Mr. Ravindra Kumar, read out a letter received
by the newspaper from the chairperson of the National
Commission for Women, asking if The Statesman
had formed such a committee. He then told us that
we would need to set up such committees at both
Kolkata and New Delhi, and asked those of us who
were interested to volunteer to serve on the committee.
There was a fairly long discussion on the subject.
The committee was formed after a sufficient number
of people had volunteered, and after counsel had
vetted the draft documentation.
We are shocked and dismayed at what we see as
a persistent and malicious campaign to vilify
The Statesman and some of our colleagues. Equally,
we are shocked at the suggestion made by Ms. Mukherji
that any of us would stand by and watch if the
sort of sexual harassment that she alleges took
place before our eyes. As will be evident from
the list of signatories, The Statesman employs
as many women as it does men. To suggest that
any of us would witness such conduct, and not
react, is incredible and defames each one of us.
NAME DESIGNATION
Esha
Bhattacharjee, Reporter-cum-Sub-editor
Swagata Sen, Reporter-cum-Sub-editor
Soma Mukherjee, Staff Reporter
Kshaunish Sarkar, Chief Reporter
Simi Kamboj, Staff Reporter
Althea Phillips, Senior Sub-editor
Sucheta Dasgupta, Sub-editor
Sougata Mukhapadhyay, Staff Reporter
Mita Ghose Senior, Sub-editor-cum-Reporter
Chitralekha Basu, Senior Sub-editor
Tirthankar Mitra, Special Representative
Debabrata Chakrabarti, Senior Artist
Chandidas Bhattacharya, Senior Artist
Arunava Das, Editorial Coordinator
Ajay Kumar, Neogi Artist
Sukomal Basak, Deputy Art Director
Kunal Bhowmick, Assistant Art Director
Brindavan Maity, Senior Artist
Dipankar Ghosh, Assistant to Art Director
Goutam Bhowmick, Artist
Ratan Pradhan, Art Director
Sreemoy Talukdar, Sub-editor
Monojit Dasgupta, Sub-editor
Nivedita Ganguli, Senior Sub-editor
Tanmay Chatterjee, Special Representative
Anindya Dasgupta, Special Representative
Uday Basu, Special Representative
Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, Staff Reporter
Sunirman Ray, Sub-editor
Elora Sen, Sports Editor
O.P. Rana, Assistant Editor
Tarun Goswami, Special Representative
Rajrupa Ghosh, Reporter-cum-Sub-editor
Hemchhaya De, Sub-editor
V. Shubha, Reporter-cum-Sub-editor
Bijoy Sengupta, Senior Photographer
Rajib De, Senior Photographer
Subhashish Gupta, Chief Sub-editor
Gautam Bhattacharjee, DeputyChief Sub-editor/Reporter
Arindam Ghosh-Dastidar, News Editor
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