Even as Nana Patekar threatened to send a legal notice to Tanushree Dutta after the 10-year-old case came to light again, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has shown her support to Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta.
While replying to a question by the media on October 2, Maneka Gandhi said that harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. She also pressed for a 'Me Too India' movement, akin to the Me Too Movement that has rocked Hollywood and most of Europe in the entertainment industry.
"Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. We were the first government to start 'I am Trolled' on social media and women who wrote to us saying they were being harassed, we took action immediately," Maneka Gandhi told reporters.
"Now, (after) this incident, I also feel that we should start something called 'Me Too India', in which any woman who is being harassed at any point should write to us. But for the first time, the National Commission for Women (NCW) is going into every case that is complained to us, and we go in detail. We have solved several thousand cases," Gandhi added.
"I don't have any comment to make on this (Tanushree Dutta-Nana Patekar case) yet. But I believe that anybody who has been harassed or believe that they've been harassed, what we are trying to do is to get this government and parliament to increase the age to 30 whereby you can complain," she further added.
Watch Maneka Gandhi voice her opinion on the Tanushree Dutta-Nana Patekar sexual harassment case.
Meanwhile, Tanushree Dutta has denied getting any legal notice from Nana Patekar. "I haven't received any notice from Nata Patekar. These threats are put so that others like me would be scared to come forward. Anyone with a similar experience shouldn't worry about these kinds of intimidation tactics. The whole nation will support them," said Tanushree to ANI.
The incident allegedly happened on the sets of the 2008 film Horn 'Ok' Pleasss, wherein Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of misbehaving with her and introducing a lewd dance step for a song. After her complaint, a video of a mob attacking Tanushree Dutta's car has gone viral. The actress was replaced by Rakhi Sawant for the song, and the latter has not supported Tanushree in her fight. But Daisy Shah, who was assistant to choreographer Ganesh Acharya on the said song, has come out in support of Tanushree Dutta.
