music

Updated: Nov 02, 2019 11:18 IST

Singer Neha Bhasin has become one of the latest musicians who has accused music composer Anu Malik of sexual harassment. “We do live in a very sexist world. Anu Malik is a predator, i too have run away from his strange moves when i was 21. I didn’t let myself get into a sticky situation beyond him lying on a sofa in front of me talking about my eyes in a studio. I fled lying my mums waiting below. He even msgd and called me after that to which i stopped responding. The point is i went to give him my cd and hope for a chance at a song. He was older and shouldnt have behaved the way he did. @The_AnuMalik is an ugly pervert,” she wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday.

I agee with you. We do live in a very sexist world. Anu Malik is a predetor, i too have run away from his strange moves when i was 21. I didn't let myself get into a sticky situation beyond him lying on a sofa in front of me talking about my eyes in a studio. I fleed lying https://t.co/tQgStLrYyT — Neha Bhasin (@nehabhasin4u) October 30, 2019

It was one of the many replies singer Sona Mohapatra had received on her Twitter post, in which she had detailed the hardships she had to face ever since she accused Anu Malik of sexually harassing her, last year.

Neha, who has been “inundated with calls and text messages” ever since she shared her account on Twitter, felt it was time for her to speak out. “I am not friends with Sona or anything like that. I knew all this was happening last year, but I had to deal with some other, more personal issues in my life and that’s why I never became a part of it,” she says. “Everyone knows he (Anu Malik) is a pervert. And when he himself stepped down last year, what is the need to get him.back as a judge ? Why are we validating this behaviour?” says Bhasin adding that Malik’s return as the judge of the singing reality show, Indian Idol, was what pushed her in telling “her story”.

Also read: Neha Bhasin recalls how Anu Malik made her uncomfortable, Sona Mohapatra calls out Sachin Tendulkar for praising Indian Idol

“I still feel squirmish about the decision I made (to run away from the studio). Why do I still feel that way? Why are the victims told to hide while the accused are allowed to walk free,” she says. “It’s bad enough that you are shamed by the man, and now the whole world is shaming you for speaking about it. That’s why women hide themselves and don’t talk about this. That’s why I wanted to tell my story, because I don’t want to hide anymore,” she says.

“If I am feeling bad because I am just a victim of his power tripping, and just about making advances towards me, imagine women, who are actually been molested, being questioned. How would they really feel?”

The 36-year-old insisted that her story, if not as horrific as some of their sexual harassment stories were, is still important. “ What I want to know is that why we, as a nation, we are telling women that it’s okay if a man is power tripping on her through either verbal advances or whatever. Why are we normalising this kind of behaviour? Why do we have to wait for us to be physically molested to be taken seriously? Isn’t this how predators eventually lead you on?”

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