A few days after a Manipur incident where women were assaulted and raped triggered outrage across the country, BJP MP from Hooghly, Locket Chatterjee, broke down on Friday as she recounted alleged incidents of sexual assault against women candidates during Panchayat polls in West Bengal.
While addressing a press conference and citing incidents of atrocities against women, Locket Chatterjee said, “We are also women. We also want to save our daughters. We are also country’s daughters. West Bengal is a part of the country. PM Modi yesterday condemned the Manipur incident. He said that law and order should work for women’s safety in every state. We want you to talk about the daughters of our region too.”
Days after a horrific video of women being paraded naked and raped in Manipur went viral, the BJP MP narrated similar incidents of sexual assault that have took place in West Bengal too during the Panchayat elections. While speaking, Chatterjee started crying and asked the people to pay attention towards the daughters of Bengal as well.
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She said, “On the day of election on July 8, in Panchla a BJP woman worker was asked to strip down and her private parts were touched. On July 11, counting day, in Domjur, a TMC candidate was assaulted. She even filed an FIR. But there is no video because people were carrying guns inside the booth. So, would we only talk about these issues when a video goes viral? Why is everybody keeping mum?”
During the press conference, West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said, “We condemn the Manipur incident, it is a sad incident but a woman BJP worker was paraded naked in South Panchla, is it less sad than the Manipur incident? The difference is that there is no video of this incident because Mamata Banerjee’s police will not allow it to be recorded.”
In the recently concluded panchayat polls in the state, nearly 50 people of various political parties, including BJP, Congress and TMC, were killed in poll violence. However, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose TMC swept the panchayat elections claimed that 19 people died in poll-related violence since June 8.