Kolkata gangrape: Insensitive remarks, public bickering by lawmakers add to TMC's woes

Kolkata: Even as the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is trying to contain the outrage over the alleged gangrape of a law student in Kolkata, the ‘insensitive’ comments by two of its lawmakers about the victim and public bickering between one of them and a third added to its woes.

The party publicly distanced itself from the comments made by its senior leaders, Madan Mitra and Kalyan Banerjee, about the victim of the alleged gangrape. Mitra, a member of the legislative assembly, had said that the incident would not have happened had the victim not gone to the college alone.

Mitra was served a notice on Sunday, with the TMC state president, Subrata Bakshi, asking him to submit an explanation within three days about his ‘insensitive remark’ that had hurt the image of the party, which had already ‘condemned’ the ‘shameful incident’. Bakshi also noted that police had quickly arrested the four whom the victim had accused in her complaint to the police. The arrested include the prime accused, who was an alumnus of the college and, like the victim, was known to be loyal to the TMC.

Kalyan, a member of the Lok Sabha, said that if a friend raped another friend, how would the government stop such incidents. After the TMC took to the X and condemned Mitra’s and his comments, Kalyan struck a note of defiance on the social media platform.

He also publicly targeted fellow Lok Sabha member Mohua Moitra, who reposted the TMC’s post condemning the comments made by her party colleagues about the victim.

“Misogyny in India cuts across party lines. What differentiates @AITCofficial is that we condemn these disgusting comments no matter who makes them,” wrote Mahua, known to be a bête noire of Kalyan.

“Mahua has come back to India after her honeymoon and started fighting with me! She accuses me of being anti-woman. What is she? She has broken up a 40-year marriage and married a guy who is 65 years old. Did she not hurt the lady?” countered Kalyan, referring to Mahua’s recent marriage to Biju Janata Dal leader Pinaki Mishra.

With the assembly elections in West Bengal less than a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in the state, found in the alleged gangrape of a student at the South Calcutta Law College in the city fresh ammunition to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her party and her government.

“Unless Mamata Banerjee is thrown out of power, such incidents of abuse against women will continue to happen in West Bengal,” Suvendu Adhikari, a state BJP heavyweight and the Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly, said, after leading a protest march in the city on Sunday. “The chief minister had in the past cast aspersions on the characters of brutalised women instead of taking strong action against perpetrators.”

The state BJP chief and a union minister of state, Sukanta Majumdar, and other leaders of the saffron party were detained by Kolkata Police while leading a protest march on Saturday. They were released early on Sunday.

The Congress and the Communist Party of India also took out protest marches across the state, condemning the gangrape.

The allegation of gangrape, which came less than a year after protest against the rape and a murder of a young doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9, 2024, had swept West Bengal, putting the ruling TMC in a tight spot.

The alleged incident at the South Calcutta Law College in Kolkata too embarrassed the TMC, with the BJP highlighting the links of the prime accused with the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the ruling party. The TMC, however, said that the accused had no connection with any wing of the party since 2021. He had passed out of the college in 2022 and started practising as a lawyer.