Don’t make ‘insensitive’ comments on RG Kar, Trinamool tells members
Times of India | 3 September 2024
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress said on Monday that it had instructed party workers not to make any statements regarding the RG Kar issue that can be construed as insensitive.
Party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a statement on X, said, “Public representatives across party lines need to be more HUMBLE and SYMPATHETIC. I urge everyone in @AITCofficial not to speak ill of anyone from the MEDICAL FRATERNITY OR CIVIL SOCIETY.Everyone has the right to protest and express themselves— This is what sets West Bengal apart from other BJP-ruled states. We have wholeheartedly fought against the BULLDOZER MODEL AND OPPRESSION TACTICS of politics. Now is the time for constructive actions to ensure such horrific incidents are not repeated. Bengal must stand united in this fight and not stop until the perpetrators are punished and an ANTI-RAPE Time Bound law is enacted by both the states and Union government.”
Banerjee’s statement came soon after the year-long suspension of a former TMC councillor from Ashoknagar in North 24 Parganas after the latter was seen threatening to distort and publicly display photos of people’s mothers and sisters on their doors in a viral video. The threat was allegedly directed at those participating in protests over the RG Kar case.
On Sunday, Atish Sarkar, who is also the husband of ward no. 12 TMC councillor in Ashoknagar-Kalyangarh municipality, said during a rally at Kachua More, “To those who make indecent comments against Mamata Banerjee on social media, I will distort pictures of the women in their families including their mothers and sisters and put them up on their doors.”
Former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh wrote on X: “The party condemns the distorted comments made by the party leader from the Ashoknagar-Kalyangarh Municipality area regarding the pictures of protesting mothers and sisters. He has been identified and the decision has been made to suspend him for one year.”
However, despite this suspension, Sarkar remained steadfast in his statement. “I have made the comments aimed at those who are making indecent remarks about my political mother, Mamata Banerjee. However, I have also apologised if anyone felt offended over this comment,” he said on Monday.
TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar issued a public apology on Sunday regarding her statement that “during previous regimes, female students were made to sit on the lap of examiners to pass their exam” during a debate on a news channel.
Party MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray also continues to pose problems for the party. Following his Sunday post on X of an image of the French Revolution, Ray on Monday posted a photograph of a broken middle stump after RG Kar ex-principal Sandip Ghosh’s arrest asking “What’s next?” Former party MP Shantanu Sen also struck a discordant note after he posted on Facebook, “This is divine justice. This proves I was not wrong. I had passed the information on corruption at the right place long back.”