"Pig", "Anti-Women": After Kalyan Banerjee Vs Mahua Moitra, A Resignation

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee put her house in order today after a verbal battle between Trinamool MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Mohua Moitra made headlines, with words like "pig", "anti-women" and "home breaker" being bandied about. As Kalyan Banerjee stepped down as the party's chief whip at a virtual meeting, Ms Banerjee asked her party MPs not to fight among themselves and focus on battling the government on Special Intensive Revision and the "National Register of Citizens".

"I have quit as the party's chief whip in Lok Sabha, as 'didi' (West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee) said during the virtual meeting that there is a lack of coordination among party MPs. So the blame is on me. Hence, I have decided to step down," Kalyan Banerjee told a news channel,  reported news agency Press Trust of India. 

Earlier, Mahua Moitra, in a podcast with a media house, hit out at Kalyan Banerjee, dubbing him a "pig". 

"You don't wrestle with a pig. Because the pig likes it and you get dirty," Ms Moitra said, responding to Mr Banerjee's comments on her marriage to Odisha's BJD ex-MP Pinaki Mishra. 

"There are deeply misogynistic, sexually frustrated, depraved men in India and they have their representation in parliament across all parties," she added.

Her response came after Mr Banerjee had called her "anti-woman" and accused her of breaking a family, following an earlier spat about the rape in Bengal law college. 

"She calls me anti-women? What is she? What has she done? She is back from her honeymoon. She has broken a man's family of 40 years and married a 65-year-old man. She is calling me anti-woman?" Mr Banerjee had said, referring to Ms Moitra's marriage to ex-BJD MP Pinaki Misra.

Asked about party chief's silence over the matter, she had expressed confidence that Ms Banerjee would do something about it.     
But Ms Moitra's jibe had sparked a long note of protest from Kalyan Banerjee. 

"Labeling a male colleague as 'sexually frustrated' isn't boldness - it's outright abuse. If such language were directed at a woman, there would be nationwide outrage, and rightly so. But when a man is the target, it's dismissed or even applauded. Let's be clear: abuse is abuse - regardless of gender," he wrote in the post on X. 

"Her choice of words, including the use of dehumanising language such as comparing a fellow MP to a "pig", is not only unfortunate but reflects a deep disregard for basic norms of civil discourse... If Ms. Moitra thinks that flinging gutter insults will mask her own failures or distract from serious questions about her record, she is deluding herself," he added. 

The two MPs had gone toe-to-toe after Kalyan Banerjee had made some offensive comments when asked about the possibility of the deployment of police inside schools. 

"Misogyny in India cuts across party lines. What differentiates @AITCofficial is that we condemn these disgusting comments no matter who makes them," Mahua Moitra had said in a post on X.