India #MeToo Movement - Don't Believe, Just Listen!

“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”

- Bryant H. McGill

I have been seeing a pattern among certain people, particularly Tamil men jumping straight into conclusions, creating stories, doubting and name-calling Chinmayi while establishing that Vairamuthu is the victim here.

From this reaction, I can deduce one thing. The men didn't listen to what Chinmayi said at all. And, Vairamuthu, who is a verbose lyricist and poet, only responded with a curt 'time will tell.' While these men can believe Vairamuthu (who is now obviously taking protection in silence and the support his silence is getting) they refuse to even listen to what Chinmayi is saying. Also, no one, as I heard of, urged Vairamuthu to vindicate himself. If I am accused falsely, I won't keep quiet. I would scream about my innocence. So, what I am saying here is, as a people, we should keep our preconceived prejudices aside and listen to both parties and find inconsistencies and corroborative evidence in both. That way, we can have some idea on what's the truth and what's not in an unbiased way. Here, while we have Chinmayi foaming at the mouth, Vairamuthu is reticent. I want to hear what he has to say for himself elaborately. But, just like the men accused by Sri Reddy, Vairamuthu is using the age-old method of being silent and letting his reputation and patriarchal society do the vindication.

I listened to what Jyoti Singh Pandey's rapist cum murderer, Mukesh Singh said regarding the incident. He said he never even touched her and then he said he threw the 'rope' he pulled out from her (her intestines) out of the bus. It is horrifying but there is the inconsistency that proved that he was touching/raping/brutalising her. This is what one should look out for and that's only possible if you listen.

I watched a number of Chinmayi's divulge on this #MeToo movement videos on North Indian media as I wanted to find inconsistencies and so far, I have come across none - she even corrected India Today's host that said, "Ok, so Veeramuthu (that's how the host pronounced Vairamuthu) kept on harassing you and you were.." Chinmayi immediately said, "No, he called me only once, that's it. He didn't keep on harassing me. Neither did anyone else in the industry. It was just that one time. And, it was just Vairamuthu that one time."

I am waiting to hear Vairamuthu's side of the story. Let's see if he comes up with something.

Ok, please don't use the darmapattini tag on Chinmayi and all the women coming out with their stories of sexual harassment - it's so yesterday. As yet, we don't know who is guilty and just like how we are not using 'periya uttamaputtiran' tag on Vairamuthu, you saying Chinmayi and the women coming out aren't darmapattini isn't justified. Also, no one among us has thought of only one man/woman in our whole life. Many women who were crazy about Maddy are now crazy about Vijay D - many men who were crazy about Trisha are now crazy about Keerthi Suresh. Just accept that as normal and don't come up with tags with standards no human being can meet.