[Tapas Pal, leading MP of the
Trinamool Congress party in West Bengal , faces calls for
suspension following threat to rape wives of his Communist state rival MPs]
By Dean Nelson
Women’s rights campaigners and
political leaders called for a leading Indian MP to be suspended on Tuesday
after he was filmed threatening to send "his boys" to rape his
opponents’ wives.
Former actor Tapas Pal of the Trinamool Congress party, which governs in West Bengal, was reassuring his supporters that he would seek revenge if any of them were targeted by their Communist rivals in the state.
“If a CPI -M
man dares to touch anybody, Tapas Pal will not spare him. I will take out my
gun and shoot him. I always carry a gun... I will destroy his entire clan. I
warn my opponents... If anything happens to my mothers or sisters, my party
workers, I will not spare them; I will have the last word. I will make their
family pay dearly. I will ask my boys to go there.”
“They will rape them”, he said.
The broadcast of his threat on
television channels provoked anger among India ’s
political leaders, including his own senior party colleagues who distanced
themselves from him.
His party leader, the West Bengal
chief minister Mamata Bannerjee, was “hopping mad”, said another Trinamool
Congress MP Denis O’Brien, who described the comments as “insensitive”.
The MP himself initially denied
making the comments but later apologised for the "dismay and consternation"
they had caused.
"I have no excuses to offer.
It was a gross error of judgement and deeply insensitive," he said in a
statement.
His wife Nandani also appeared to
apologise on his behalf.
“I feel terrible about it. Whatever
he has said, it is not right being a member of the parliament,” she said.
But she also suggested he may
have had some cause for his outburst. “Nobody is trying to find out what provoked
him to speak like that”, she added.
His threat emerged amid a
continuing national debate about the level of sexual violence in India
which began after the gang-rape and murder of a student on a Delhi
bus in December 2012.
It intensified last month after
low caste two girls were found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh after they
appeared to have been raped.
Last year a 16-year-old girl was
raped by gang-members linked to Mr Pal’s Trinamool Congress Party in Calcutta
and died on New Year’s Day after she was set on fire.
Leading women’s rights campaigner
and Communist Party leader Brinda Karat called for the MP to be suspended from India ’s
Lok Sabha parliament over his threat. His comments were “not acceptable”, she
said.
Mamata Sharma, head of India ’s
National Commission for Women, said Mr Pal should be arrested. “He should be
disqualified from the Lok Sabha. It’s highly condemnable and we will make sure
that law takes its course. There should be no leniency”, she said.
Tapas Pal has come a long way since he hit stardom with his debut 'Dadar Kirti'. Arguably the first big star of the post-Uttam Kumar era, Pal delivered successive hits, some of which like 'Gurudakshina' and 'Bhalobasha Bhalobasha' went on to attain cult status during a period when Bengali cinema had lost its urban audience and relied on the rural masses for business.]
Press Trust of India
 |
Tapas Pal (L) and Shatabdi Roy pictured in 2009 Photo: Hindustan Times
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"I am saying this. Those who
kill people can't be humans... As long as I am with you, don't spare any CPM
worker. I am telling my boys," Pal said while addressing people at a
village in Nadia district.
"I am also telling women
that you must be aware of kitchen vegetable cutters (Boti). Just slit their
throats with them," Pal said.
The footage aired on a television
channel showed that Pal made those remarks on the same day as he had threatened
to kill CPM workers and get their women folk raped by his boys.
It was telecast just hours after
Pal tendered an unconditional apology for his earlier comments after being
asked by an embarrassed party leadership to do so following a widespread
outrage.
Tapas Pal has come a long way
since he hit stardom with his debut 'Dadar Kirti'. Arguably the first big star
of the post-Uttam Kumar era, Pal delivered successive hits, some of which like 'Gurudakshina'
and 'Bhalobasha Bhalobasha' went on to attain cult status during a period when
Bengali cinema had lost its urban audience and relied on the rural masses for
business.
Through the Eighties, he ruled
Bengali mainstream cinema along with Prosenjit, who eventually surpassed him in
popularity and star status. But Tapas Pal wasn't quite dislodged from stardom. He
moved on to character roles, some of which had shades of grey, but he was very
conscious of his image. Until June 14,
2014 , that is.
Tapas committed a big blunder. He
has issued an unconditional apology under my instructions. Party has taken
necessary action: MB [1/2]
