KOLKATA: Movie star and Trinamool Congress (TMC)MP Tapas Pal on Monday joined the ranks of fellow party leaders in using violent language to intimidate political opponents, when he allegedly threatened to kill Opposition activists and send his “boys to rape their mothers and sisters”.
Addressing the TMC workers at Choumaha village, Pal issued a stern warning to the Opposition supporters.
Significantly, both the BJP and the CPM have strong roots in Nadia district within which the Krishnangar seat falls.
“I know strong-arm tactics as I had done it before becoming an MP. I carry a firearm. I am myself a ‘mastaan’ (muscleman-cum-don). I am a TMC worker and if our party workers are touched I will shoot those Opposition party workers with my revolver and finish off their entire generation.”
“If any TMC female worker is touched, I will send my boys, who will go and rape their (Opposition activists’) mothers and sisters. Their homes will be set on fire and destroyed. Commandos accompany me on visits,” he told the villagers, who did not cheer the MP and remained silent.
However, the TMC quickly distanced itself from Pal’s remarks. “It is his personal opinion and an irresponsible statement to make. Our party does not support it at all,” TMC national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP, Derek O’Brien said.
Meanwhile, reacting to Pal’s statements, state BJP general secretary Shamik Bhattacharya said, “It’s beneath my taste to comment on such utterances by a non-political personality. He might be an MP but Mamata is their symbol. He must be socially boycotted. He has only proved the fact that rape is a political weapon for the ruling party in West Bengal.”
And CPM leader Sujon Chakraborty wondered that what kind of men Mamata had sent to the Lok Sabha. “It is scandalising but not surprising if one goes by the TMC culture and its leaders’ track record. Rape as a tool for political vengeance can be used only by a party like the TMC,” he said.