{"id":3456,"date":"2016-06-16T02:35:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T21:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3456"},"modified":"2016-06-16T02:35:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T21:05:12","slug":"the-3-mistakes-of-chetan-bhagat-me-too-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3456","title":{"rendered":"The 3 Mistakes of Chetan Bhagat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Y<\/span><\/p>esterday, for the first time ever, I immersed myself in the works of Indian author <\/span>Chetan Bhagat<\/span><\/a>. Not his novels (I\u2019m not into self-harm), but the two lengthy statements he issued on Facebook over the past week after his name was dragged into the raging storm that is the <\/span>Indian #MeToo movement<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\n\nBhagat has never written a sequel to any of his novels, and I think I know why. The difference between his first and second statements was so stark, he gave my brain whiplash. First, he issued a <\/span>contrite apology<\/span><\/a>, and then, as accusations piled up, pivoted to a <\/span>tone-deaf statement<\/span><\/a> chock-full of unwarranted character judgements with a healthy dose of <\/span>mansplaining<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\n\nLet\u2019s look at what happened. Over the past weekend, alongside the shocking story of Vikas Bahl sexually assaulting an employee of Phantom Films, screenshots surfaced of good ol\u2019 Bhagat <\/span>chatting it up<\/span><\/a> with an unnamed woman. No obscene language was used and it could pass off as an attempt at pick-up (and a stupid one for those who found Bhagat\u2019s demand for women of a \u201c<\/span>certain IQ<\/span><\/a>\u201d as idiotic as I did). Bhagat told the woman that he was \u201cwooing her\u201d, in the same literal, matter-of-fact manner as an IT guy telling you he\u2019s formatting your hard drive, and \u201csweet\u201d, \u201ccute\u201d, and \u201cfunny\u201d were the compliments paid. Or so he believed.<\/span>\n\nThis may not be the textbook definition of sexual harassment, which is why Bhagat may get away with saying he is not a harasser in this case. However, given that he was married at the time the messages were exchanged, allegations of loose morality and <\/span>infidelity<\/span><\/a> cropped up. He issued an apology the same day, seeking forgiveness both from the woman in the messages as well as his wife. Now, what happens in a marriage is between a man and his woman. However, what isn\u2019t a private affair, is the very public second statement he issued, five days after his first apology, as a second woman came forward with screenshots of her own.<\/span>\n\nWho is in the mood for a quick game of spot the differences? In his first apology, he states he felt a \u201cstrong connection\u201d with the woman, and that they \u201chit it off really well\u201d after a couple of meetings. Then, in his second statement, he says he was not interested in this new woman as anything more than a \u201cresearch subject\u201d. I didn\u2019t know <\/span>Chetan Bhagat<\/span><\/a> was a scientist, or that he had received government approval to carry out research on human subjects, but maybe those are the perks that come with the honour of judging <\/span>Nach Baliye<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span>\n

The thing with internalised misogyny is that it tends to peep through.<\/blockquote>\nJudgement is something Bhagat feels quite comfortable doling out, as his categorising of the woman in question as a \u201c<\/span>porn writer<\/span><\/a>\u201d reeks of it. If he is to be believed, the woman met him at a shoot, and reached out to him over email to have him co-write a story. He goes on to cherry-pick explicit extracts from a writing sample he says she sent, and sanctimoniously leaves it up to the reader to decide the woman\u2019s intentions and her character. Reading the whole statement, it\u2019s evident his main grouse is being labelled a <\/span>harasser<\/span><\/a>, but in his zeal to clear his name of that one specific charge, he\u2019s left the door wide open for us to peek in and get an embarrassing look at his inner thoughts.<\/span>\n\nSo, dear C-Bag (may I call you C-Bag to your face?) since you like numbered titles so much, here are the Three Mistakes of Your Public Statement.<\/span>\n\nFirstly, you don\u2019t get to play the victim card at a time when women are <\/span>coming forward<\/span><\/a> to share their stories of real oppression. To whine about how this controversy has prevented you from promoting your latest book only makes you look like a self-serving schmuck. You claim that your accuser and the critics of your behaviour are using your famous name to make headlines. But with a book releasing in the midst of #MeToo, the allegation that you\u2019re using a trending topic to garner publicity can just as easily be levelled at you.<\/span>\n\nThe second mistake was trying to mansplain the #MeToo movement. You refrain from doxxing your accuser, but do share that she\u2019s been trolled online since she came forward, and jump to the conclusion that trolls = fake allegations. Even genuine survivors of assault face trolls when they come forward; in fact, Donald Trump trolled Christine Blasey Ford on an international stage when she offered her testimony against Brett Kavanaugh. Thankfully, you don\u2019t get to decide what\u2019s real and fake when it comes to the <\/span>#MeToo movement<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\n\nThe third, and most egregious mistake, was sending the messages in the first place. You realised this in your initial apology, so why are you now justifying them as \u201cresearch\u201d tactics? Even if the woman wrote <\/span>sexually explicit material<\/span><\/a>, she had approached you in a professional capacity, as a co-author. What made you decide that working environments and \u201cwooing\u201d environments were interchangeable? Even if you backed down after being rejected, even if you came clean to your wife afterwards, even if you aren\u2019t a harasser as you repeatedly insist, those messages were inappropriate to send to a fellow writer with whom you have no intimate relationship.<\/span>\n\nThe thing with internalised misogyny is that it tends to peep through, as it did when Bhagat wrote in <\/span>One Indian Girl<\/span><\/i><\/a>, \u201cFeminist is a wrong term. It should be humanist.\u201d Another example, this one from <\/span>2 States: The Story of My Marriage<\/span><\/i>, is the insightful generalisation that \u201cThe word \u2018future\u2019 and females is a dangerous combination.\u201d Look what you made me do, C-Bag; you made me Google your books. But what\u2019s worse is that by insinuating the woman who shared screenshots of your chat had loose morals because she wrote erotica and claiming to have been wronged by #MeToo movement, you have cast a spotlight on your attitude toward women.<\/span>\n\nWith two high-profile public statements, a new book launch, and a resumption of the press tour promoting it, we\u2019ve heard a lot from Chetan Bhagat this week. Unfortunately, it seems like he\u2019s never heard the saying \u201cIt\u2019s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than open it and remove all doubt.\u201d<\/span>\n\n\u00a0\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this article implied that the two statements were in response to the same allegation.<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Chetan Bhagat, you don\u2019t get to play the victim card at a time when women are coming forward to share their stories of real oppression. To whine about how the controversy about your \u201cwooing\u201d chats has prevented you from promoting your latest book only makes you look like a self-serving schmuck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":3457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[2588,688,943,354,19,6599,2750,1615,408,803,939],"class_list":["post-3456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-metoo","tag-chetan-bhagat","tag-consent","tag-facebook","tag-india","tag-indian-metoo","tag-me-too","tag-rape","tag-sex","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-whatsapp"],"yoast_head":"\nThe 3 Mistakes of Chetan Bhagat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dear Chetan Bhagat, you don\u2019t get to play the victim card at a time when women are coming forward to share their stories of real oppression. 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To whine about how the controversy about your \u201cwooing\u201d chats has prevented you from promoting your latest book only makes you look like a self-serving schmuck.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3456\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-15T21:05:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1539257727.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dushyant Shekhawat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The 3 Mistakes of Chetan Bhagat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Dear Chetan Bhagat, you don\u2019t get to play the victim card at a time when women are coming forward to share their stories of real oppression. 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