While women across regions, religions, races and class differences face various challenges while seeking justice for sexual abuse and harassment, in so-called Left-Liberal and progressive circles, women’s allegations of abuse often rank lower in the hierarchy of victimhood when the accused perpetrator is ideologically aligned or useful. A classic example of this long-running pattern is the sexual assault case against Tehelka Magazine’s former founding editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal.

From lower court to Leftist ecosystem, the victim who accused Tarun Tejpal of sexual assault was blamed and shamed

Barely a year after the Nirbhaya Gang Rape shook India’s conscience, Tarun Tejpal sexually assaulted a young colleague in Goa. Recently, the Bombay High Court at Goa reversed the 2021 Sessions Court order that acquitted Tarun Tejpal. The High Court convicted him under Sections 376(2)(f), 354(a) and 354(b) of the Indian Penal Code, which relate to rape by a person in a position of trust or authority, sexual harassment, and use of criminal force with the intent to disrobe a woman. 

The far-left journalist was accused of forcing himself on a colleague against her wishes inside an elevator of the Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, Goa, on November 7, 2013, during a Tehelka magazine event. Tejpal was arrested in late November 2013 and released on bail in July 2014. Tejpal had stepped down as editor six months after being accused of sexual assault to ‘recuse’ himself. 

The case dragged on for over a decade, and during this time, the complainant woman had to go through much criticism and scrutiny from both the Goa Sessions Court as well as the Left-Liberal ecosystem. All of this came the victim’s way despite Tarun Tejpal’s own apology emails admitting unwanted sexual advances to his junior colleague and pressure from his position of authority.

The trial process fixated on the survivor’s “perfect victim” demeanour, past messages, and lack of stereotypical trauma displays. In fact, the Bombay High Court at Goa had in 2021 noted that the sessions court’s verdict read like a “manual for rape victims”. The High Court had said that the lower court’s order had described how a sexual assault survivor should or should not respond in such cases.

While the High Court has now rejected those stereotypes as myths and upheld the victim’s testimony, the initial and prolonged response from sections of the Leftist journalistic and celebrity ecosystem told an opprobrious story of reflexive scepticism and even blaming and protection of Tarun Tejpal, their blue-eyed boy.

In 2014, Nirupama Sekhri wrote an open letter [archive] in leftist propaganda outlet Newslaundry, addressing “Ms Tehelka-Assault Victim”. The sister of Newslaundry founder Abhinandan Sekhri refused to treat the complainant woman as a victim at all.

Nirupama Sekhri’s letter framed the entire episode as “bubblegum feminism”, reverse female chauvinism, and complicity in getting a man jailed without trial.

“To begin with, I would like to establish quite clearly that I do not see you as a victim, unless it is of bubblegum feminism which I will speak in detail of later,” she wrote.

Demonstrating shamelessness even for Leftist standards, Nirupama had even questioned the contribution of the rape accusations the victim levelled to women’s rights. She even portrayed Tarun Tejpal as the real casualty of ‘media frenzy’.

Casting aspersions on the victim, Sekhri called her “irresponsible” and accused her of ripping Tejpal’s reputation apart. Laden with an accusatory tone, the letter dissected the victim’s conduct and questioned why she even chose to travel with Tejpal in the elevator. She also questioned the delay on the part of the victim in filing a complaint against Tejpal, despite it being a known fact that such delays are not unusual in cases of sexual assault, where things like social stigma, shame and shock weigh on the victim’s mind.

Nirupama not only targeted the victim but had also cast aspersions on women who supported Tejpal’s victim.

Unsurprisingly, Abhinandan Sekhri too had amplified his sister’s disgraceful victim-blaming impulse and whitewashed Tejpal in a 2014 interview with the ex-Tehelka editor.

Jumping on the bandwagon of victim-blaming, senior Journalist Seema Mustafa also delegitimised the victim’s testimony based on her reading of the CCTV footage. In an article published in leftist rag Scroll, Mustafa outrightly claimed, “What happened around the lift does not bear any similarity to what the alleged victim claims had happened.” Following a backlash, however, Mustafa reportedly removed her byline from the disgusting article.

Tejpal’s former editor at Outlook, Vinod Mehta, went a step ahead in the abject defence of Tarun Tejpal. In his memoir Editor Unplugged: Media, Magnates, Netas and Me, Mehta tried to dilute Tejpal’s heinous act by referring to it as “presumably non-consensual carnal favour”. Mehta wrote that Tejpal had a reputation for having “some difficulty in keeping his trousers zipped up”. Mehta even defended Tejpal’s “manic libido”.

Tarun Tejpal had also received the support of Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar, and controversial film director Anurag Kashyap. ‘Prominent’ Leftists had circulated online CCTV footage of the hotel where the victim was raped, and claimed that the footage ‘contradicted’ the victim’s story.

Following the 2021 acquittal, Congress leader Manish Tewari had described Tarun Tejpal as “honourably exonerated” and “hugely politically persecuted”, welcoming him back and sparring with those who still took the victim seriously.

The reactions of the Left-liberal cabal to the young journalist’s allegations against Tarun Tejpal suggest that they were, to varied extents, aware of Tejpal’s crimes, and yet chose to shield him.

Justice for women matters only when the perpetrators were ideological adversaries: The Left’s selective feminism

This pattern of revictimisation the victim of sexual abuse, blaming her for her own misery, downplaying the abuse itself, and whitewashing the perpetrator due to his service to the political-ideological cause(s) is not unique to this case. The Leftist reaction to an incident of reported sexual abuse differs based on who the perpetrator is.

When the Unnao Rape Case happened wherein BJP’s Kuldeep Singh Sengar was the accused, the Leftist ecosystem declared the entire BJP a ‘party of rapists’. But when the rapist was one of their own ideological sepoys, the same cabal turned into judge, jury, executioner to almost punish the victim for having dared to bring up rape allegations against a person as ‘great’ as Tarun Tejpal, who was serving a supposed ‘higher purpose’ fighting the BJP ‘fascists’.

Remember the Islamo-leftist outrage over the 2018 Kathua rape case wherein an 8-year-old Muslim girl was raped and murdered? The whole Islamo-leftist lobby had run an aggressive campaign highlighting the religion over the accused and the victim. The horrific crime was politicised, a forced communal angle was given to the case, and Hinduphobia was normalised under the garb of seeking justice for the victim.

There are numerous cases wherein women’s safety and dignity became insignificant and defending the ideologically useful perpetrators took priority for Leftists. Basically, there is an undeclared hierarchy in place in the Leftist ecosystem: when the accused advances a preferred narrative, be it opposing Hindutva or BJP-RSS, anti-caste activism, fight against ‘Brahminical patriarchy’, fight against the oxymoron of ‘Islamophobia’, and other such recognized ‘higher purpose’ causes, women’s safety regardless of the victim belonging to the same ideological cabal, becomes secondary, and even reporting it is deemed ‘betrayal’ of the cause.

If an ideology requires its adherents to go berserk about feminism and women’s rights only when the perpetrators are either irrelevant to the ideology or ideological adversaries, and silence from the victim about their personal trauma for a supposed ‘greater good’ of the cause, then feminism and women’s rights advocacy from that end of the ideological spectrum is performative, hollow, and ignominious.

Young leftist faced harassment at CJP protest, chose perfect timing to reveal her ordeal to prevent unintended undermining of the anti-BJP ‘movement’

A recent example of the Left’s moral contradiction was seen in the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests in Delhi, mid-July. An ideologically hardcore Leftist, who happens to be the daughter of a former MLA from Uttar Pradesh, Yashaswinee Raje Singh, came out publicly about the alleged harassment and misogyny she faced by CJP supporters while attending the so-called ‘student protest’.

Singh waited for the CJP protest, which she vehemently supported, to reach its victorious conclusion before revealing her ordeal. Such was the self-imposed imperative of not doing ‘anything’ that weakens the ‘movement’ against the ideological enemy, the Modi government, that Yashaswinee Singh explicitly said that she does not want to tear down the movement, but only expose the hypocrisy of the movement’s leaders.

While Singh highlighted how the CJP supporters dismissed her immediate complaint about harassment, she did not receive the same kind of support from her ideological allies that they would have shown had it been a BJP-led protest or by supporters of the ruling dispensation. Singh also did not proceed seeking police action against her alleged molestors.

Woman raped during the 2021 Farmers’ Protest was mocked for calling out her alleged rapist leading the agitation

Years before the Yashaswinee Singh-CJP harassment episode, a woman was mocked and discredited for exposing her alleged rapist, Social media documenter Mohammad Zuber, associated with the Kisan Ekta Morcha and Trolley Times, who was actively engaged in the 2021 Farmer’s Protest against the Modi government.  When the survivor spoke out, Varun Chouhan, a key figure in Trolley Times, mocked her publicly. 

Later, several women came forward with similar allegations, under the banner of The Kaur Movement.

Not only female activists but even women journalists covering the protests were subjected to molestation by some protestors. Even they had to face online abuse and criticism from the Left-Liberal cabal.

India Today anchor called out farmer’s protest participants for molesting female reporters, received ridicule and disgraceful justifications

During the Farmers Protest in January 2021, Preeti Choudhry, Editor at India Today, had publicly called out the “sizeable chunk of depraves” among the protesting groups who were sexually harassing female reporters on the ground. When she spoke out against the pervasive groping and misconduct, figures linked to the movement tried to justify the behaviour, claiming news-hungry reporters were asking for it.

Yogendra Yadav knew about the rape of a woman during the Farmers’ Protest and yet suppressed her predicament for the ‘greater ideological good’

During the Farmers’ Protest in 2021, a 25-year-old female activist from West Bengal who travelled to the Tikri border to join the farmer protests was sexually harassed on the train and then gang-raped at the protest site in Delhi by two men linked to the Aam Aadmi Party, before passing away at a hospital due to COVID. Yogendra Yadav was in contact with the victim and was aware of her ordeal, and yet chose not to inform the police, prioritising the protection of the protest over the life and dignity of the victim who only came to support the protestors.

Rohini Ghavari accused self-declared anti-caste crusader Chandrashekhar Azad of sexual harassment and received backlash from the Left

In mid-2025, Rohini Ghavari Valmiki, a PhD student in Switzerland, accused Azad Samaj Party leader and Lok Sabha MP Chandrashekhar Azad of emotional and sexual exploitation, and false promises of marriage. She filed complaints with the police and the National Commission for Women (NCW) after years of alleged abuse. However, Azad’s supporters and the Leftist cabal outrightly declared Ghavari’s allegations as a ‘BJP conspiracy’ to frame the ‘Dalit voice against upper-caste dominance’.

The Rohini Ghavari-Chandrashekhar Azad case exemplified that when it comes to Dalits, male figures are often the first to be championed in the name of their rights, while the suffering of women is sidelined. 

Ghavari herself is a Dalit, and had her sexual abuse allegations been directed against a BJP-linked person or an upper-caste individual, the same Leftist cabal and ‘social justice’ warriors would have flooded the social media with ‘Justice for Rohini’ campaigns, Leftist media and feminist would have published long op-eds on how Dalit women continue to be victimized a upper-caste dominated society in Hindutva fascist Modi’s India.

Not only does the Left turn a blind eye to sexual abuse perpetrated by its ideological adherents, but even the victims choose silence

Such is the perversion of the Leftist ideology that even sexual assault victims within the liberal-left space conceal sexual misconduct to protect their political narratives. A Hindu woman who faced sexual and mental abuse by The Wire journalist Omar Rashid was reminded of her identity in a “Hindu Rashtra” to enforce her silence for the “greater good.”

Self-declared historian and YouTuber Ruchika Sharma had also publicly revealed that she too had chosen not to name or report her own sexual abuser in the past. She also claimed that they chose silence over justice, not out of fear of their abusers, but out of fear of “fanning Islamophobia.” 

In a similar admission, anti-Brahmin activist and writer Dr Meena Kandasamy had revealed a 2010 incident in 2022, wherein she actively refused to press charges against a non-Brahmin faculty member who had molested her, despite having eyewitnesses and strict institutional rules like GSCASH available to her.

Explaining her refusal to pursue justice, Kandasamy said that she feared being labelled a “Brahmin stooge” by her peers. Demonstrating how ideological hatred subverted her self-respect, Kandasamy wrote that “living with the humiliation of molestation seemed better than being called a Brahmin-stooge.”

In a similar case, The Wire journalist Damyanti Dhar was told by leftist editors to ignore the mob attack because the attackers were Dalit men. When she had gone to Ahmedabad for a ground report, she was attacked by a mob of 15-20 Dalit men. After Dhar revealed her ordeal, the left-wing activists and editors who often talk about freedom of the press and women’s safety asked her to ignore the incident, telling her to consider it a professional risk and forget it.

The disturbing parallel in the West and the performative core

The pattern of liberal-progressives shielding ideologically aligned or useful sexual abusers and rapists is not unique to India. In the US, Hillary Clinton spent decades defending Bill Clinton against multiple women who accused him of sexual harassment. The Democrat circles attacked the credibility of the alleged victims all while building a political feminist brand. The “Believe Women” campaign operated performatively and selectively in the US against the conservatives, and not against the progressive power centre.

Hillary Clinton had decided not to fire her faith adviser Burns Strider during her 2008 presidential campaign. Strider was accused of molesting a female subordinate and sending her suggestive emails. NBC News had reported in 2018 that Strider was sent to counselling and docked pay, while his subordinate was reassigned on the campaign.  It was only years later that Clinton expressed ‘regret’ over not immediately firing Strider.

Beyond the issue of sexual abuse, feminism in the liberal circles becomes secondary in the presence of a supposedly more appealing political issue. Back in 2008, when Barack Obama ran for the presidential office for the first time, his opponent was Hilary Clinton. Regardless of who won, the election was bound to witness a historic first: either the US would have got its first woman President or first Black President.

Hilary was giving a good fight to Barack Obama, and given it was the first time in 232 years that America would have got its first woman president, it was expected that female celebrities holding the banner of feminism would mainly rally behind Clinton. However, Oprah Winfrey, an influential black woman journalist and media personality, decided to endorse Obama instead of Clinton. Winfrey’s endorsement is reported to have fetched over one million votes to Obama. All the talk of feminism, ‘us girls gotta look out for each other,’ got trumped by what the liberals perceived as a stronger factor, and perhaps more important, the race factor.

In the United Kingdom, for nearly four decades, Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs or rape jihadis sexually abused minor white girls, treated them as sex slaves, weaponised rape to humiliate non-Muslims. And yet, liberal progressive Labour governments, including female politicians who claim to champion women’s safety issues, did not publicly call out the rape jihadis or seek the strictest action against them. In fact, the Labour Party shielded the rape jihadis. Why? Because preventing Islamophobia was more important than protecting young girls from religiously motivated rapes, pregnancies, and lifelong trauma. After all, women are relegated to the lowest spot in the hierarchy of victimhood.

Conclusion

Apparently, the left-liberal advocacy of feminism is largely performative globally, and women remain at the lowest in the hierarchy of victimhood. Perhaps the regressive, ‘men must fight, and women must adjust’ mindset has become entrenched even within the supposed progressives.

Women inside the left-liberal ideological circles absorb a lesson that exposing a rapist or molester who shares ideology risks enabling the ‘real’ oppressors, Brahmins, Hindutvawadis, Islamophobes, right-wingers, and whatnot.

From the Tarun Tejpal and other episodes discussed, it demonstrably emerges that in left-liberal circles, feminism often becomes a rhetorical ammunition reserved only for ideological adversaries while internal predators are accorded the luxury of the benefit of the doubt, whitewashing through conspiracy theories, victim-vilification, or self-imposed silence for the greater ideological good since the perpetrator has a record of serving the higher purpose of championing the ideological causes.

Apparently, female victims in the left-liberal circles self-censor not only out of the fear of disbelief or retaliation but also because the ideology they adhere to requires them to internalise their lowest position in the victimhood hierarchy.

It, however, must not be misunderstood that sectional protection of ‘our side’ is an exclusive feature of Leftists alone. However, the liberal hypocrisy is the distinctive feature. They posit themselves as the natural champions of women’s rights, feminism, the fight against patriarchy; some even support ‘all men are trash’ kind of extremism as well; however, they subordinate these principles conveniently to identity rankings, ideological-political utility or past credentials. The Left is not a ‘safe space’ for women it claims to be. Beyond the appealing ‘feminist-progressive’ marketing, the Leftist ecosystem offers women the ideological silence of Cultural Marxism, where even justice is selective.