Tata Group Ends Contract With Suhel Seth After MeToo Accusations

Brand consultant Suhel Seth is the latest to get the axe after the MeToo allegations surfaced. Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, has terminated its contract with Seth. Seth’s firm Counselage India will not work with the Tata group after the contract ends next month. The industry giant took this decision after reviewing its association with Seth who is embroiled in allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Counselage's contract with Tata Sons will end on November 30, 2018," said a Tata Sons spokesperson, NDTV reported.

People connected with Tata group said that the company had stopped engaging with Counselage right after the allegations against Seth emerged. Six women, including model Diandra Soares, filmmaker Natasha Rathore and writer Ira Trivedi, have accused Seth of sexual harassment.

Beverage giant, Coca-Cola has also terminated Counselage India's contract following the MeToo allegations against Seth. Counselage India has had a long association with the company. “He is not a consultant for the board or company presently,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson said, in response to ET’s query. While Seth regularly attended Coca-Cola board meetings, he also accompanied company officials for the FIFA World Cup in Russia in June-July this year.

Naming and shaming of people who have sexually harassed women over the years on social media has created a severe dent in the media and entertainment industry. Over the past month, several big companies showed their support towards the movement by dissociating themselves from several men accused of sexual misconduct.

It all started with the famous comic group AIB when its co-founder Tanmay Bhatt stepped down from his position and another co-founder Gursimran Khamba also left the group. Bhatt stepped down after allegations emerged that he did not act on the sexual harassment accusations against comedian Utsav Chakraborty who worked with AIB. Even Terribly Tiny Tales sacked its co-founder Chintan Ruparel over sexual harassment allegations. Dentsu Aegis Network started a probe into the complaints against Happy Mcgarrybowen CEO Kartik Iyer and CCO PM Praveen Das and sent them on leave pending inquiry.

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Publicis India and DDB Mudra Group also launched a probe against its ECD Ishrath Nawaz and Brijesh Jacob of 22feet Tribal Worldwide respectively.

"Counselage's contract with Tata Sons will end on November 30, 2018"

Even the cricket board, BCCI, has asked its CEO Rahul Johri to send a letter explaining his response to the sexual misconduct charges that came up against him within a week after women named and shamed him. Times of India sacked its Hyderabad edition's resident editor KR Sreenivas because of the MeToo movement.

One of the biggest resignations due to the movement came from Union Minister MJ Akbar who had to quit the Junior Foreign Minister's post after over 20 women accused him of sexually harassing them. Akbar has categorically denied the allegations and also filed a defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first one to accuse him.

Picture credit- Catch News

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