A day after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership accepted the party MP Tapas Pal’s apology for threatening to “unleash his boys to rape,” West Bengal Women's Commission chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee said the “Commission is condemning Mr. Pal’s statement.”
When contacted, Ms. Mukherjee told The Hindu here on Thursday that the Commission is “concerned” about the matter.
However, she ruled out taking any suo motu action against Mr. Pal and said that she had conveyed her concern to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in this regard.
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When asked about the reason for not taking any action against the TMC MP for his recent comments that have caused public outrage across the State, Ms. Mukherjee just said, “Mr. Pal is an MP and the National Commission for Women (NCW) has already taken some step in this regard.”
She neither elaborated on why Mr. Pal being an MP is an impediment for the Commission to take action against him nor what steps the NCW had taken against him.
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The secretariat member of a city-based rights organisation, Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, Ranjit Sur, said, “Nowhere in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 does it say that the Commission cannot take action against an MP.”
He cited the example of TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar being summoned by the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) for making untoward remark about the Park Street gang rape case in February last year.
“If Ms. Dastidar can be summoned then why cannot be the same be done in the case of Mr. Pal,” he asked.
Complaint with NHRC Mr. Sur also said that APDR had lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission in this reared.
A delegation of the State BJP, led by secretary Ritesh Tiwari, met Ms. Mukherjee and demanded “stern action” against Mr.Pal. When contacted Mr. Tiwari said Mr. Pal's comments were “utterly derogatory...”