A war of words on Sunday ensued within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after senior party MP Kalyan Banerjee slammed the leadership for not practicing what it preached and receiving flak from party colleague Mahua Moitra for nourishing an alleged misogynistic mindset.
Banerjee hit back Moitra for her mysoginy-remarks saying it was not him but Moitra who was anti-woman. Mounting a personal attack on Mitra’s marriage, Banerjee said, “Emerging from a one and a half month honeymoon from abroad she is calling me anti-woman but if her recent (marital) conduct is to be seen, women will understand who is actually anti-women because she has ruined the life and family of a woman.”
Earlier Moitra had in a subtle statement on remarks made by some of her party colleagues including Banerjee and former Minister Madan Mitra written “Misogyny in India cuts across party lines. What differentiates … is that we condemn these disgusting comments no matter who makes them.”
Banerjee in reference to the to the South Calcutta Law College gangrape case had earlier asked, “What can be done if a friend rapes his friend?” He also said that the leadership should practice what it preaches adding, “The zero tolerance as is being bandied about and preached should be practiced before and not after the crime has been committed.”
Apart from Banerjee, former Minister and senior MLA Madan Mitra too stirred controversy by saying that the victim should not have gone to the college and stayed back there till odd hours, before advising women to take guard against “such beasts roaming about the area”.
Moitra promptly took up the issue and hit back calling out “misogynistic mindset” of leaders cutting across party lines inviting a violent counterattack from Banerjee.
Meanwhile, the TMC party in an official X handle wrote, “the remarks made by MP Kalyan Banerjee and MLA Madan Mitra concerning the heinous crime at South Calcutta Law College were made in their personal capacities. The party unequivocally disassociates itself from their statements and strongly condemns the same. These views do not reflect the position of the party in any manner whatsoever.”
Elsewhere, in a related development Union junior minister and Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar was on Sunday released unconditionally by the Kolkata Police after more than 12 hours’ detention even as he refused bail on personal bond on Saturday.
Majumdar and some of his colleagues were picked up by the police late on Saturday noon from the Gariahat crossing in South Kolkata while they were proceeding towards the South Calcutta Laws College where a girl student had been gangraped by some of her fellow students and an alumnus and an influential Trinamool Congress students’ leader. Stating that he had refused bail on personal bond, Majumdar, said that “the police released us in the morning without pressing any charge” adding how “Bengal has become a killing field of democracy where you cannot raise your voice against wrongs done by the ruling party people … I have been arrested four times in one month … I refused bail on personal bond … and now I will ask all the BJP who are held during agitations to refuse bail on bonds from now on … we will like to see how bid the Government jails are.”