Of late, there’s been a lot of uproar around #MeToo accused Sajid Khan getting a national platform and singer Sona Mohapatra is disappointed to see the #MeToo movement getting diluted in India. With the filmmaker making it to national television with a reality show, she wonders if one should be a part of the “culture of silence”.

Mohapatra questions, “If we speak up, we lose. If we don’t, we lose. That is the Hobson’s choice for women who spoke up about #MeToo in India. Should we provide free publicity to such TV shows’ diabolical marketing teams and channels giving a hero’s welcome to sex offenders like Sajid Khan, Anu Malik (composer), Vikas Bahl (filmmaker) and more? Should we avoid bathing in the troll mud bath that follows making our identity that of controversial trouble-makers and liars, or should we be part of the culture of silence and normalize this?”

The 46-year-old, who shared her #MeToo story in 2018 and accused musicians Kailash Kher and Malik of sexual misconduct, knows that systematic changes take time. “But the least we can expect is an apology from some of these men. I expect the good people, who care about the good fight, to be in our corner,” she says, adding, “I reached out to the National Commission for Women with several testimonies of women who had spoken up about facing abuse in the hands of Anu Malik, including some minors, but unfortunately, they are merely a toothless organization on paper with no real powers.”