Manipur video: BJP response on a loop, asks what about Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar

In West Bengal, the BJP alleged that two tribal women had been stripped and beaten up in Malda district. The Trinamool Congress said the incident was local, and a fallout of suspicion that the women were thieves.

Malda SP Pradeep Kumar Yadav said a suo motu case had been lodged, and six persons detained. A purported video clip of the incident showed a group of women assaulting two other women. A senior police officer said the women were caught on suspicion of theft, and thrashed by local women shopkeepers.

In Delhi, addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur accused Opposition leaders of remaining silent on assaults against women in non-BJP-ruled states.

Rajasthan is now “the number one state in crimes against women’’, he said. “Over 1 lakh cases of crimes against women have been registered in Rajasthan in the last four years. A total of 33,000 cases pertain to sexual assault on women in Rajasthan,” Thakur said.

Referring to the sacking of a Rajasthan minister, Rajendra Gudha, hours after he criticised the state government on crimes against women, Thakur said: “Will Chief Minister (Ashok) Gehlot tender his resignation when his own minister says that the CM has lost his authority, when, in his home district, a woman is murdered and burnt, and when 5 km away from his residence, a woman is raped and left to die?”

Thakur then went on to target West Bengal too, and apart from talking of the Malda incident, said: “Mamataji, I don’t know if any ‘mamata’ (endearment) is left in your heart or not, but humanity was shamed when in Howrah’s Panchla area, more than 40 goons of the TMC paraded a woman naked on the day of the panchayat polls and the candidate contesting the election was beaten up, insulted.”. This has been denied by the West Bengal Police.

Thakur also alleged that a young woman was assaulted in Bihar’s Begusarai district.

“Crime against a woman is crime, be it happening in Manipur, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal or Chhattisgarh. They can’t be differentiated. States have to take action. But, they only want to play politics. Instead of giving report cards of the state ruled by them, they are playing politics,” he said, adding “the country is watching”.

Thakur added that contrary to the Opposition’s claims, it was not the BJP that was shying away from a debate in Parliament. “We are neither running away from fulfilling our responsibility nor from participating in the debate. But (the Opposition) should stop playing politics at least on crime against women… I urge the opposition parties to come to Parliament on Monday along with the long list of crimes against women registered in their states because discussion will happen on all such incidents,” he said.

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani talked of both West Bengal and Rajasthan too. “What is extremely alarming is that yesterday, a minister stood up against crimes against women in Rajasthan. He was unceremoniously dismissed by the Congress party. Equally shocking is the video which is now going viral on the Internet, emanating from the state of West Bengal, in a district called Malda, where two Dalit women are being mercilessly beaten and stripped. My position is this, the Congress did not want to hear the truth about atrocities against women in Rajasthan. The Congress is running away from the truth about the challenges that have emanated in the state of Manipur and does not want a discussion (in Parliament). The Congress is a mute spectator in the killings of innocents in the state of West Bengal, all because it is hungry for a collaboration with the TMC,’’ she said.

Sharing a purported video clip of the Malda incident, Amit Malviya, BJP IT cell chief and the party’s co-observer for West Bengal, said: “The horror continues in West Bengal. Two tribal women were stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while police remained a mute spectator… The women belonged to a socially marginalised community… It had all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart… But she chose to do nothing. Neither did she condemn the barbarity nor did she express pain and anguish because it would have exposed her own failing as a chief minister.”

Speaking in Chennai, after an event, the Union Minister for Earth Sciences and an MP from Arunachal Pradesh, Kiren Rijiju, said: “Whatever matters are to be discussed in Parliament, we will present our point of view. But right now, I can’t say anything outside on the matter.”

The Manipur video is about an incident dating back more than two months, showing two tribal women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted by a mob. Despite an FIR being filed then, no action was taken in the case till the video surfaced earlier this week. Since then, six people have been arrested.

– With PTI inputs