My heart goes out to Hardeep Singh Kohli, the turban-wearing comed-ian and writer (and a contributing editor to this magazine). According to a BBC spokeswoman, he has been suspended from The One Show for six months following a complaint by a female colleague. ‘He was reprimanded and immediately apologised,’ she said. ‘He agreed to take some time away from the show to reflect on his behaviour.’
I wonder what appalling act of sexism Kohli committed to upset his co-worker? Asked for her phone number, perhaps? Invited her out to dinner? ‘I recognise I overstepped the mark and have apologised unreservedly,’ he has said. The whole episode is eerily reminiscent of the public shaming of a Chinese intellectual during the Cultural Revolution. The claim by the BBC spokeswoman that Kohli will have six months to ‘reflect’ on his behaviour, as if the punishment is for his benefit, has a sinister ring to it. And Kohli’s statement sounds suspiciously like one of those ‘confessions’ wrung out of western ‘spies’ during a communist show trial. He has been forced to abase himself at the altar of political correctness, acknowledging that he has committed a terrible thought crime, in order to have any hope of working in television again. After all, The One Show has shown how it deals with those who don’t ‘apologise unreservedly’ for ‘inappropriate behaviour’. Carol Thatcher has been sent to Siberia.
The reason I feel so much sympathy for Kohli is that I had a similar experience ten years ago. I was living in New York, working as a freelance journalist, and among the publications I was contributing to was Time Out NY. On one occasion, I was on my way out of a meeting with the travel editor when I stopped to chat to a female intern.
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