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Raju Korti
In 2010, Newsweek named Tehelka's Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury as "150 women who shake the world." That honour, I am afraid, has been pinched right from under her nose by the man who has so sanctimoniously claimed to have pioneered new precedents in journalism.
Let me say this upfront and it is not in hindsight. I was never charmed by the name Tehelka. It seemed to promise the kind of sensationalism that the Media of today euphemistically terms as "investigative journalism". The high profile Tarun Tejpal lived up to that reputation but while making a promising start, he eventually succumbed to the guiles of public titillation. From the awkward spot of bother that he finds himself in at the moment, he also seems to have caved in to the indiscretion that he thought was in private domain.
Instant deification and instant denigration come easily in a country with a usually mercurial mindset. Heroes fall by the wayside within no time of their stardom. The temptation to sit on judgment on someone's moral character may perhaps be the easiest thing to do, but Tejpal has not allowed this luxury to his critics. In a much expansive statement befitting the stature of a noble man, he has passed a verdict on his own culpability as "bad lapse of judgment". It also speaks volumes of the delusions of grandeur he suffers from the hallowed -- now hollowed -- portals he sermonizes from.
After his abortive adventure in an elevator, Tejpal predictably got holier than though.
"The last few days have been most testing, and I squarely take the blame for this... A bad lapse of judgment, an awful misreading of the situation, have led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for. I have already unconditionally apologized for my misconduct to the concerned journalist, but I feel impelled to atone further."
"I feel atonement cannot be just words. I must do the penance that lacerates me. I am therefore offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for the next six months."
These lines, coming from an assertive man, are befuddling to say the least. Lapse of a judgment might be an aberration allowed to all human beings but when Tejpal calls it an "unfortunate" incident, one gets the unmistakable feeling that he is giving a clean chit to himself when the job should have been left to the Law. Sexual harassment does not happen unfortunately. It is a willful and deliberate act committed by an individual harboring notions of unconquerable supremacy. Given the clout that he wielded from his vantage point, the argument of a "bad lapse of judgment" leading to an "unfortunate" incident is not tenable by any stretch of human compassion.
There is an element of inadvertent humor in Tejpal's claim that he "misread" the situation. It is almost as if he is trying to justify the act as -- at best or worst -- ill timed. But then, sensitivity is not in the scheme of things when "Tehelka" is the leit motif. The name seemed to give the institution a license to expose wrongdoings with any available stick to beat. It plumbed new depths by providing prostitutes to army officers to expose the black sheep in uniform with a specious "ends justify the means". Bolstered by those subscribing to this Robinhood-ish philosophy, it probably did not occur to its overzealous, over-patriotic minds that the modus operandi was not in sync with healthy journalism.
In an obvious attempt to throw a blanket on his guilt, he speaks of the need to “do the penance that lacerates me.” In those tempered words lies a message: It was just an aberration and not a crime. My  relinquishing the office for six months should be an atonement enough.
In his unbounded wisdom, Tejpal has forgotten the Indian Penal Code that hands down punishment for sexual misconduct. Much, in a manner of speaking, "I am my own judge because I am Tarun Tejpal. I set my own standards at redemption."
The timing of the lid blown off this scandal is even more appalling. It comes at a time when Tejpal makes an international toast of himself with his purported authority in raising issues involving moral turpitude.
At the moment it is not clear how the young woman is coping with the lacerations inflicted by Tejpal and now sought to be mollified with words couched in reparation. It is besides the point how she responds to Tejpal's grandiose penance but the law certainly has a duty to do even if it concerns the high an mighty founder of a magazine embroidered in lurid and pulp.