Gautam Adhikari, the founding editor of DNA Mumbai and former executive editor of the Times of India, has resigned as a senior fellow of the Center for American Progress (CAP) after he was accused in multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
On Twitter, Adhikari was accused of kissing at least three women without consent. In one incident, he was the editor-in-chief of DNA Mumbai, which he co-founded in 2005. In another, he was serving as the executive editor of the Times of India. One journalist recounted an incident from 2006 with Adhikari in the DNA office when she was just 22 years old.
Adhikari, who is the author of ‘The Intolerant Indian: Why We Must Rediscover a Liberal Space’, joined the center’s national security and international policy team as a fellow in 2014.
“Mr. Adhikari is not a senior fellow with CAP,” Daniella Leger, senior vice president for communications and strategy, told TNM on Monday night. Leger declined to say when Adhikari had left the organisation. The center has removed his bio page from the website, Leger said. A tweet from Sonora Jha, a professor of journalism at Seattle University, confirmed Adhikari’s resignation.
When asked about his resignation from the Center for American Progress in light of the allegations, Adhikari responded in an email, "I left my honorary nonresident position at the Center for American Progress. I am retired and am not associated with any institution."
It has been a week of reckoning for men in Indian media as numerous allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct have come to light as part of the powerful #MeToo movement. Comedy collective All India Bakchod stated on Monday that co-founder Tanmay Bhat would step away from his position with immediate effect and Gursimran Khamba would take a temporary leave of absence following allegations of misconduct on both their parts. Prashant Jha, the Chief of Bureau and Political editor of national daily Hindustan Times, stepped down after a former employee accused him of harassment.
Times of India Resident Editor KR Sreenivas has been accused of sexually harassment by seven women. A petition was sent to the Times of India asking the newspaper terminate his employment, and he has been sent on administrative leave as an internal committee probed the allegations.