'Very insensitive': Shashi Panja on Kalyan Banerjee, Madan Mitra's remarks

India Today

In an exclusive interview with India Today, West Bengal Minister Shashi Panja talked about the horrific Kolkata law college rape case and Trinamool Congress leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Madan Mitra's remarks on the case and more.

Transcript

00:00and joining me now my first guest is shashi panjar the west bengal minister for women and

00:10child development and social welfare appreciate your joining us ma'am last year it was rg car

00:16in kolkata government hospital where a rape and a murder of the young woman takes place this year

00:22it is another horrific rape that takes place inside a government law campus would you concede

00:30that this is hugely embarrassing for a government run by a woman chief minister dare i say any chief

00:36minister but particularly a woman chief minister in a state like west bengal

00:40yes of course sir we are very aggrieved about this and it's really heartbreaking it's painful

00:51and and of course we are not putting anything we are not defending ourselves it is just that we

00:58are putting trying to put things on record and it's good that kolkata police swung into action it was

01:04swift and decisive and within 12 hours of the of receiving the complaint they could be nabbed and

01:11they are in police custody the investigation is on as of now almost four of them have been arrested and

01:17the nine member sit has been formed and we are extremely serious about this uh but ma'am are

01:24you aggrieved or embarrassed just a minute ma'am are you are you aggrieved or embarrassed at the end of

01:31the day i mean at the end of the day here is a case in this particular instance where the individual

01:37who's the main accused monajeet mishra is someone who was a member of your trinamul chatra parishat

01:43there are photographs of him with your leaders there are posters of him in the college

01:47one of which also had abhishek banerji and mamata banerji in the background while he's addressing

01:52students so here is someone whom the bjp is saying is directly connected was protected in a way

01:57by the thinamul and therefore could carry out an act like this with impunity inside a college campus

02:02no no there was also a time in 2018 when he was expelled and even if you see the last 2022 committee

02:13because there have been no elections even after that in fact even during covid and after even the

02:182022 committee which was just a temporary committee does not have his name on it nevertheless he has

02:25continued to you know brazenly say that he was associated with trinamul congress which i think

02:32is one of the fallout or i would say uh you know people try to associate themselves with the ruling

02:38party we are absolutely uh disgusted with him and i think uh uh we have we have disowned him long time

02:47back and he was not in the committee he should such kind of precedence as the facts are unfolding it's

02:55it's absolutely shocking ma'am you're saying you've disowned him in 2018 truth of the truth of the

03:01matter just a minute ma'am truth of the matter is that since 2013 since 2013 there are serial

03:07offenses listed against him here is someone clearly who was uh someone who should have been isolated a

03:15long time ago and yet from 2013 he carried on till 2018 and then comes back to the college as a

03:20contractual employee how was such a person with such a who's a serial offender allowed to re-enter a

03:26college uh there will be therefore question was he in some way the beneficiary of political patronage

03:36no no i don't think uh i mean you should blame the uh that there was political patronage and he was

03:43brought here i mean this is a very uncomfortable situation truly that we are in and

03:47uh we are absolutely uh uh the the party is also uh looking into uh in detail with the students wing

03:57and this should not be the the kind of uh mentality that our student uh members for that matter he

04:05because he was just maybe an ordinary member to uh should have this is not the mentality it's very

04:10difficult to predict what kind of a mentality one is uh will have in future but in the beginning

04:16everybody tries to uh you know be with the ruling party and the ruling organization he's a serial

04:22offender shashi panjaji with due regard he's a serial offender how does a serial offender become

04:29someone who apparently was was virtually controlling a college college campus in south kolkata he was

04:35obviously flouting his political connections

04:37no no no this this is all uh that he has uh self-assumed you know that he has assumed himself

04:49that i am a leader or something like that there was no patronage for this and uh i think the governing

04:55body of the college uh also uh must have seen into this as to why why he had been inducted is something

05:03which i don't know this is a matter which relates to the governing body of the college but but you

05:07agree that that is the embarrassment there are many who assume themselves to be leaders and abuse

05:12no no shashi panja that's precisely how does someone like this get back into the college despite

05:16having a kind of record that he had a serial offender accused of molestation accused of uh of

05:22targeting women is someone who gets back as a contractual employee that will raise questions

05:26absolutely i i think uh he shouldn't have been there and uh we really dissociate from all this

05:38this is a terrible thing which has happened and uh finally the questions are being asked to us

05:44so well we are facing that you know because there is another uh person who's also been arrested zeb

05:49ahmad and we are told that zeb did not even have the marks to get into the college and again the question

05:54is were all these people being brought into the college because they had the political influence

05:59and therefore thought as i said earlier that they had the impunity possibly to get away with something

06:04as horrific as a gang rape in the college

06:10no uh rasti the party will not look into who is getting through it to the admission portal it is a

06:16you know that is why there is a common it's a portal now i mean you do not it there's no it's all

06:21online so it is very difficult for me to say uh it is an online portal and you get in through

06:28your serial number i it is very difficult for me to comment on that i wouldn't know the nitty-gritties

06:34of that but having said that uh uh truly we are ashamed of such kind of okay you're you're saying

06:41i mean be it any political group they may belong okay so you're saying you're a student should not be

06:45that you're ashamed of it that's uh that's a strong word you've used that's good to hear but i just

06:49want to for a moment play what two of your leaders said and i want you to respond listen in to what

06:54kalyan uh banerji and madan mitra two one a senior mp one a senior mla said i want your response first

07:01listening to what they said ma'am

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