Union minister MJ Akbar arrived in Delhi Sunday morning amid calls for his resignation over allegations of sexual misconduct by several women over the last few days but refrained from speaking on the claims.
“There will be a statement later on,” Akbar told reporters as he came out of Delhi airport, news agency ANI reported.
The opposition Congress has demanded his resignation after he was accused of sexual harassment by many women journalists who had worked with him when he was an editor.
{{/usCountry}}The opposition Congress has demanded his resignation after he was accused of sexual harassment by many women journalists who had worked with him when he was an editor.
{{/usCountry}}Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah said that he was not in a position to comment on Akbar as the claims against the Union minister needed to be “looked into”.
“It’s difficult to comment on something that comes on a website. One can put anything on a website. So, this needs to be checked. If that is true or false, whether such an incident happened or not,” Shah said in an interview to ETV on Friday.
Several union ministers have expressed solidarity with victims of sexual harassment, without mentioning Akbar, but minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi has asked for an investigation against him.
The minister of state for external affairs was in Nigeria when his name came up in a #MeToo thread on social media earlier this week.
Government sources say a final call will be taken by the Narendra Modi government on whether to retain him as minister or concede to the demand for his removal.