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'Very insensitive': Shashi Panja on Kalyan Banerjee, Madan Mitra's remarks
India Today
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6/30/2025
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.
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00:00
and joining me now my first guest is shashi panjar the west bengal minister for women and
00:10
child development and social welfare appreciate your joining us ma'am last year it was rg car
00:16
in kolkata government hospital where a rape and a murder of the young woman takes place this year
00:22
it is another horrific rape that takes place inside a government law campus would you concede
00:30
that this is hugely embarrassing for a government run by a woman chief minister dare i say any chief
00:36
minister but particularly a woman chief minister in a state like west bengal
00:40
yes of course sir we are very aggrieved about this and it's really heartbreaking it's painful
00:51
and and of course we are not putting anything we are not defending ourselves it is just that we
00:58
are putting trying to put things on record and it's good that kolkata police swung into action it was
01:04
swift and decisive and within 12 hours of the of receiving the complaint they could be nabbed and
01:11
they are in police custody the investigation is on as of now almost four of them have been arrested and
01:17
the nine member sit has been formed and we are extremely serious about this uh but ma'am are
01:24
you aggrieved or embarrassed just a minute ma'am are you are you aggrieved or embarrassed at the end of
01:31
the day i mean at the end of the day here is a case in this particular instance where the individual
01:37
who's the main accused monajeet mishra is someone who was a member of your trinamul chatra parishat
01:43
there are photographs of him with your leaders there are posters of him in the college
01:47
one of which also had abhishek banerji and mamata banerji in the background while he's addressing
01:52
students so here is someone whom the bjp is saying is directly connected was protected in a way
01:57
by the thinamul and therefore could carry out an act like this with impunity inside a college campus
02:02
no no there was also a time in 2018 when he was expelled and even if you see the last 2022 committee
02:13
because there have been no elections even after that in fact even during covid and after even the
02:18
2022 committee which was just a temporary committee does not have his name on it nevertheless he has
02:25
continued to you know brazenly say that he was associated with trinamul congress which i think
02:32
is one of the fallout or i would say uh you know people try to associate themselves with the ruling
02:38
party we are absolutely uh disgusted with him and i think uh uh we have we have disowned him long time
02:47
back and he was not in the committee he should such kind of precedence as the facts are unfolding it's
02:55
it's absolutely shocking ma'am you're saying you've disowned him in 2018 truth of the truth of the
03:01
matter just a minute ma'am truth of the matter is that since 2013 since 2013 there are serial
03:07
offenses listed against him here is someone clearly who was uh someone who should have been isolated a
03:15
long time ago and yet from 2013 he carried on till 2018 and then comes back to the college as a
03:20
contractual employee how was such a person with such a who's a serial offender allowed to re-enter a
03:26
college uh there will be therefore question was he in some way the beneficiary of political patronage
03:36
no no i don't think uh i mean you should blame the uh that there was political patronage and he was
03:43
brought here i mean this is a very uncomfortable situation truly that we are in and
03:47
uh we are absolutely uh uh the the party is also uh looking into uh in detail with the students wing
03:57
and this should not be the the kind of uh mentality that our student uh members for that matter he
04:05
because he was just maybe an ordinary member to uh should have this is not the mentality it's very
04:10
difficult to predict what kind of a mentality one is uh will have in future but in the beginning
04:16
everybody tries to uh you know be with the ruling party and the ruling organization he's a serial
04:22
offender shashi panjaji with due regard he's a serial offender how does a serial offender become
04:29
someone who apparently was was virtually controlling a college college campus in south kolkata he was
04:35
obviously flouting his political connections
04:37
no no no this this is all uh that he has uh self-assumed you know that he has assumed himself
04:49
that i am a leader or something like that there was no patronage for this and uh i think the governing
04:55
body of the college uh also uh must have seen into this as to why why he had been inducted is something
05:03
which i don't know this is a matter which relates to the governing body of the college but but you
05:07
agree that that is the embarrassment there are many who assume themselves to be leaders and abuse
05:12
no no shashi panja that's precisely how does someone like this get back into the college despite
05:16
having a kind of record that he had a serial offender accused of molestation accused of uh of
05:22
targeting women is someone who gets back as a contractual employee that will raise questions
05:26
absolutely i i think uh he shouldn't have been there and uh we really dissociate from all this
05:38
this is a terrible thing which has happened and uh finally the questions are being asked to us
05:44
so well we are facing that you know because there is another uh person who's also been arrested zeb
05:49
ahmad and we are told that zeb did not even have the marks to get into the college and again the question
05:54
is were all these people being brought into the college because they had the political influence
05:59
and therefore thought as i said earlier that they had the impunity possibly to get away with something
06:04
as horrific as a gang rape in the college
06:10
no uh rasti the party will not look into who is getting through it to the admission portal it is a
06:16
you 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
06:21
online so it is very difficult for me to say uh it is an online portal and you get in through
06:28
your serial number i it is very difficult for me to comment on that i wouldn't know the nitty-gritties
06:34
of that but having said that uh uh truly we are ashamed of such kind of okay you're you're saying
06:41
i mean be it any political group they may belong okay so you're saying you're a student should not be
06:45
that you're ashamed of it that's uh that's a strong word you've used that's good to hear but i just
06:49
want to for a moment play what two of your leaders said and i want you to respond listen in to what
06:54
kalyan uh banerji and madan mitra two one a senior mp one a senior mla said i want your response first
07:01
listening to what they said ma'am
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