Anyone who has dealt with excess baggage at check-in will tell you that a bulging suitcase, which you had to sit on to shut, will burst open when you least expect it. While Tanushree Dutta’s case might have been ‘closed’ today, it will open again, very soon. Old allegations will spill out afresh – of sexual harassment on a film set, of intimidation, and now allegations of ‘ a corrupt police force’.

For Many of Us, Tanushree IS #MeToo India

For those who couldn’t speak out, Tanushree did the talking. She took one for the team, for all us women with a ‘dirty old man’ story to tell. And boy, did she tell it; years later and bravely. In doing so, she challenged three assumptions about women speaking up against harassment.

Closing the case on a #MeToo allegation is not the same as putting a lid on the #MeToo movement. No, the inconvenient truths of MeToo can’t be suppressed with arguments of not having enough witnesses or not enough proof, in case after case.

Tanushree too is clearly aware that her case is an indicator of sorts for the movement, and for countless women in India who have faced similar struggles with a system that is stacked against them.Tanushree Dutta to The Indian Express“I pray that I never have to deal with this kind of toxicity ever again in life. I am tired of fighting alone against oppressors, bullies and a corrupt system. I have better things to do in life with my talent and skill set and I need to focus on those but please don’t take this example to mean that you will not be heard when you speak up!! Continue to expose these creeps through social media and other platforms so that in future people would think twice before troubling an innocent young girl. I still believe btw I will get justice and victory will be mine!! How… only time will tell.”

Tanushree’s #MeToo case raises many questions. Questions about what the process looks like for ‘ordinary’ women when a case with so much public attention was deemed ‘closed’, despite the alleged sexual harassment having taken place in plain view ON the sets, WHILE filming Horn Ok Pleasss in 2008.

Fears about her case going the ‘Vinta Nanda way’ – in which the accused Alok Nath was cleared of charges – are not unfounded but Tanushree’s story is not going away. Her travails have highlighted the long battle to prove her story a woman who speaks out will face. And with that, she wins our renewed admiration.