Kolkata: TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee slammed for comments on gang rape of law student
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee’s comment on Friday in the backdrop of a Law student’s rape here, asking how the authorities would handle a situation where a girl was raped by a friend, has drawn severe criticism from the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislature as well as the citizens.
Banerjee had asked, “If a friend rapes another friend, then how will the government authorities provide protection in such cases? Do you want to deploy police in educational institutions? Police cannot be in every corner?”
Commenting on the incident further, he opined that women’s safety is at stake because of the mentality of perverted men against whom strong action should be taken. The MP added that men should be vigilant and protect their lady colleagues while women too should stand up against such crimes. He asked all people to ensure female students’ safety and arrest the perpetrators of crime immediately.
The state wing of the BJP and media head Amit Malviya, said that the MP was displaying his insensitivity by calling women’s safety only a political agenda.
Pointing out that, in the said case, a college student has been raped by a TMC leader and his gang, they accused Banerjee of trivializing the issue by saying the crime was committed by ‘classmates.’ Malviya, in a social media post, has asked if rape of a girl by classmates was now acceptable. “If this government claims it has no role in ensuring safety inside educational institutions, then what is the point of having a government at all?” he asked in his post.
A female student of the South Calcutta Law College was allegedly raped on college premises by three people on June 27. It came to light within a few hours that one of prime accused in the case is Monojit Mishra, a 31-year-old student leader of the TMC. While the TMC leadership has admitted their past association with the accused and has insisted that it does not define the party and its stand, senior leaders have denied Mishra’s association with the TMC.
Images of Mishra in the company of senior political leaders have surfaced online, with the Opposition and many people blaming the Mamata Banerjee-led government for the incident.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
