Yesterday I read a news report that left me more confused than a man trying to understand GST without a calculator, a lawyer, and divine intervention.
A corporate office in Nashik, had been accused of sexual harassment. Serious issue. Grave matter. Needs investigation, justice, and strong action.
But later, a WhatsApp headline screamed something else entirely: Forced conversion!
Now I paused. Read it again. Rubbed my glasses. Cleaned them. Read it once more.
Had I missed a chapter somewhere?
Because, last I checked, harassment was one crime and forced conversion, was another debate altogether. But here they were, standing arm in arm like two distant relatives suddenly claiming the same inheritance.
And I began to wonder, if we have created a new category of crime where everything is bundled together like a Diwali gift hamper. One box, many surprises, none of them pleasant.
Imagine this scene: A young lady professional walks into her office, armed with degrees, confidence, and probably a tiffin her mother insisted she carry. She is competent, independent, and capable of handling boardroom battles.
And suddenly, today in our narrative, she is reduced to a helpless character in a plot that seems less about her dignity and more about some other clever agenda.
Because let us be honest.
If a woman is harassed, the focus should be on the harassment. On justice. On safety. On accountability.
But when we start attaching labels and mixing issues, we are no longer protecting her. We are using her.
And that is where the story becomes tragedy.
We seem to be telling our women, “You are not just victims of misconduct, you also have weak minds, vulnerable to manipulation, coercion, and conversion.”
What a disgusting downgrade. From professionals to pawns!
Maybe these newsmakers imagine that the public is foolish, because, when every incident is given the same dramatic twist, two things happen.
First, genuine cases lose their sharpness. Everything begins to sound like noise.
Second, the woman at the centre of it all disappears. Her voice, her experience, her truth, all get buried under a narrative that was never really about her.
And somewhere, quietly, we begin to accept a dangerous idea.
That women need saving not just from criminals, but from themselves.
Which is rather insulting, if you ask me.
Because the women I know are running companies, managing homes, leading teams, arguing cases, performing surgeries, and occasionally correcting their husbands’ grammar.
They are not waiting to be “converted” by the nearest passing villain in a corporate cubicle.
So maybe it is time we simplified things.
If there is harassment, call it harassment.
If there is a crime, call it a crime.
Do not mix, stir, garnish, and serve it as something else entirely.
Because in trying to make the story louder, we may just be making the truth disappear. And that, dear reader, is the conversion we should all be worried about…!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Spot on.
are women so naive and incapable of standing up against such stuff. That to in the corporate world.
And do these educated men really go around doing this at the workplace??
Well put. The entire thing is about conditioning from families. Countless small acts by the males which are reinforced by the women in families reinforce the belief that women are inferior. Barbie dolls, cooking sets, tiny handkerchiefs are all props in this.