Politics can be notoriously contentious and can often become even more so. In response to BJP’s Tamluk candidate and former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s shocking remarks about West Bengal chief minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, where he questioned her “price” and whether she was “a woman at all,” the TMC promptly filed a complaint with the Election Commission against the BJP candidate.
Gangopadhyay’s statements at a rally
At a campaign rally in East Midnapore’s Chaitanyapur on Wednesday, Gangopadhyay said that Trinamool claimed BJP’s Sandeshkhali candidate, Rekha Patra, had been bought for Rs 2,000. He then questioned Mamata Banerjee, asking what her price was, suggesting Rs 10 lakh. He further implied that this was because she used Keya Seth makeup, a personal care brand and contrasted this with Rekha Patra, who he said could be bought for Rs 2,000 because she worked in households. He questioned how a woman could denigrate another woman to such an extent, according to a Times of India report.
TMC’s response
Enraged by Gangopadhyay’s tirade, West Bengal finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the former judge had crossed all limits of decency. The finance minister clarified that the TMC had only mentioned that Patra and others were misled, given Rs 2,000, and made pawns in a political conspiracy, never claiming they were bought for Rs 2,000. She defended the TMC supremo, asserting that no one knows how to safeguard a woman’s dignity better than Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata Banerjee’s stance
Earlier this month, in reference to the Sandeshkhali sting video, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked the BJP not to play with the honour of Bengal’s mothers and sisters. During a rally in Labhpur, Birbhum, the TMC supremo accused the BJP of distributing money and fabricating the Sandeshkhali incident.
Allegations by TMC general secretary
At another rally, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the BJP is stooping to new lows by paying women a meagre Rs 2,000 to lodge false rape complaints. He claimed that the Sandeshkhali incident was a staged conspiracy.
Involvement of National Commission for Women
On 11 May, the NCW claimed that women from West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali are being “compelled” to withdraw their complaints by TMC workers in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. Multiple purported videos of Sandeshkhali women shared by the TMC claimed that a local BJP leader made those women sign blank papers, which were later filled up as complaints of sexual assault. The women in those purported videos claimed they were asked by BJP worker Piyali Das to appear in person at the local police station and relate their ordeal before the NCW team, which had visited Sandeshkhali to take stock of the ground situation.
Petition in Supreme Court
On Wednesday, a woman from Sandeshkhali petitioned the Supreme Court for a court-monitored investigation into the Sandeshkhali incidents, including the recent sting videos and the rape complaints filed by three women who later claimed they were coerced into signing blank papers. On 29 April, the Supreme Court had already taken up the Bengal government’s challenge to the Calcutta High Court order that directed a court-monitored CBI probe into the Sandeshkhali issue.
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