Mitali Saran: Pachauri drags TERI into the dock

Waiter, waiter! There's a sleazebag in my think tank

There’s always good news and bad news.

The bad news is the creep in the office who harasses, gropes, and stalks women. This jerk is so confident of his entitlement, untouchability, and hawt, hawt sex appeal, that he’s been doing it in the face of frank rejection from the women. And he keeps getting away with it.

Why do the victims suffer quietly? Because he’s the boss, he frames his criminality as the flattering attentions of a great lover and romantic. Because he’s vindictive, and when the women’s revulsion, fear, and anger penetrate the narcissistic cloud that constitutes his reality, he tells them that he’ll make their life hell if they speak up, he’ll destroy their careers with a few phone calls. Because people tell the victims to ignore it, be quiet, don’t make trouble, it’ll blow over.

Why do other colleagues do and say nothing publicly? Because he is so well regarded professionally, so networked and connected. Because he does good work. Because he brings a lot of money, contacts, and visibility, and the stakes are higher for the organisation than for an individual complainant. Because what’s a little laddish flirtation, compared to the valuable contributions the man has made? Because this slime ball is a name and an elder. Because, well, it seems so impolite. Because, at the end of the day, who are we fooling, we’re still a country that largely doesn’t see the problem with harassing, groping and stalking women. And at the same time, because it would make the organisation look bad if word got out.

And then one woman refuses to ignore it, decides to tell it, makes trouble, chooses not to let it blow over. She suffers, loses earnings, possibly ruins her career prospects. She gets partial redress when the boss is forced to step down, the internal complaints committee finds him guilty, a replacement is identified, the high court slaps him with a restraining order. It’s all over the newspapers, and the sleaze bag has to look people in the eye — his family, his colleagues, his friends, his peers, the global community. He goes “on leave”. Surely it’s over for him? Applause for the organisation.

But then the complainant sees, with fury and humiliation, his power at work: the internal complaints committee is revamped, her colleagues are approached by management and encouraged – unofficially, casually – to tell her to settle, and worst of all, the sleazebag is reappointed to an even more exalted post.

So far, this bad news story is so common in workplaces that it’s boring.

Here’s the good news: In the on-going sick fest involving The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) chief R K Pachauri, the complainant hasn’t let up. Better yet, a rising chorus is backing her, instead of letting her sink alone and without a trace, as so many are left to do. When the Teri board recently welcomed Mr Pachauri back in the post of executive vice-chairman - board member Naina Lal Kidwai was disappointingly quoted as saying: You have to look at the “legacy of an organisation” — a sea of negative reportage and editorials followed. Another woman said Mr Pachauri had harassed her. A number of Teri alumni, to their abiding credit, wrote to say that they could not accept their degrees from Mr Pachauri’s hands.

Well here’s your precious organisational legacy, in three easy steps: First, Teri is now widely seen to be a sexist, criminal-sheltering dinosaur of an organisation — as many women have long known it to be. Second, any corrective action it now takes will look like panicky flailing, not organisational integrity. Third, board members should know that lots of people will assume that this is how sexual harassment cases go down at their own companies.

There has been some corrective action, still developing. On Thursday Teri confirmed that Mr Pachauri would not attend the university’s convocation. It claimed that he is only overseeing his replacement’s transition into the organisation. The police said it will file a charge sheet within a fortnight. It’s possible that more will be done; but not enough will have been done until Teri a) fires Mr Pachauri for good, and publicly censures him regardless of the current position of the case in the legal process; and b) complies with the law on sexual harassment at the workplace by taking sexism seriously, and ensuring a safe workplace for women.

If Mr Pachauri’s career and reputation survive the tidal wave of public disgust he’s currently drowning in, he’s a worse sleazebag than anyone knew, in a worse country than anyone thought. But perhaps this case will show companies that the cost of tolerating or rewarding sexual harassment in the workplace far outweighs the cost of reporting and addressing it yourself. Only one man faced charges to begin with; now an entire organisation is in the dock. When there are enough brave women, nobody is too big to fail.