By Ila Ananya
Three months after many women accused TVF’s Arunabh Kumar of sexual harassment, Kumar has finally finally decided to step down as CEO. Finally. He posted a letter on Facebook and Twitter earlier today, saying that he was stepping down but would remain a mentor, and that “the last few months had been the most challenging ones of [his] life” and that he has “faith and confidence that eventually truth would prevail.”
TVF had the most disgusting response to the sexual harassment complaints (that they will leave “no stone unturned” in trying to find the anonymous author who first complained about the harassment and bring her to “severe justice” because the complaints were defamatory and false among other things). Of course Kumar has now apologised for this in his post, but follows that up with how he built the company from scratch, and what his dreams for TVF are.
And although this has taken too long to happen, what’s crazy is the comments under his post: they all support him, worrying about what will happen to the next season of Pitchers, giving them his good wishes. He has been called “a great fighter” who will “shine back”, a “superb human being” and a “big dreamer”. There’s almost nobody calling him and his post out: there’s nothing in his post about what he did and what happened.
Now it isn’t just TVF’s toxic masculinity showing, it’s everybody’s.