Kolkata:
A leader of
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has provoked a howl of protests in Bengal with his comment: "There was rape earlier, there is rape today. As long as the earth exists, there will be rape."
Deepak Haldar, Trinamool legislator from Diamond Harbour, made the comments at a public meeting in his constituency last evening. He rushed to explain that his intent was to raise awareness.
"Please let the journalists not take these comments out of context. Why did I say this? We don't support rape... I said this because it is a social evil. It is not possible for Mamata Banerjee alone to solve it. It is not possible for me or anyone of us alone... all of you must take a collective decision and where such incidents happen, you must protest," Mr Haldar said.
But the comment did end up igniting a firestorm.
CPM's Sujan Chakraborty said, "This is the latest in a series of unwarranted comment on rape by Trinamool leaders. It reflects their mentality."
Congress' Abdul Mannan commented, "The Trinamool leaders don't know how to speak."
The Trinamool, which rules the state, is still battling widespread condemnation of its parliamentarian Tapas Pal's comments on rape in July. In video footage, Mr Pal was recorded saying, "If the CPM people touch a hair on the head of my workers, I will set my boys upon their women to rape them." (read:
What should I do, kill him? Mamata on Tapas Pal's rape threat)
References are also being made to the fact that even chief minister Mamata Banerjee had controversially described the 2012 rape of a woman at Kolkata's Park Street as "fabricated". Later, her party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said it was "not a rape at all but a misunderstanding between two parties involved in professional deal - a woman and her client." She later apologized for the comment.
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had to clarify after his remarks at an event were taken to imply that he had described the 2012 Delhi gang-rape as a "small incident of rape". He said, "I regret that some word that I used was construed as insensitive, that was never my intention." (
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