Political parties on Tuesday slammed Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal, who was caught on camera openly threatening to send ‘his boys’ and get women of Opposition party raped, and demanded immediate action against him.
The Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M) warned that it will bring a privilege motion against Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal and said that he has no right to continue as a Member of Parliament.
Congress and the BJP also denounced Pal for such irresponsible statement and said that the West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee must take strict disciplinary action against him.
Speaking to reporters, CPI-M polit-bureau member Sitaram Yechury said, “This is a very serious matter and my party is planning to bring a privilege motion against Tapas Pal in the Parliament.”
Meanwhile, National Commission for Women (NCW)’s chief Mamta Sharma today said that Tapas Pal must be sacked and the West Bengal police must file an FIR against him and take action.
Several women’s organisation today protested against the Trinamool Congress MP for his highly distasteful utterances and demanded action against him. The protesters also questioned Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s silence on the matter.
Earlier, Tapas Pal’s wife apologised for her husband’s distasteful, crass and highly insensitive remarks.
While apologising for her husband’s comments, Nandini Pal said, “Tapas Pal shouldn’t have lost his cool. He should not have used the word rape.”
“He is a good man, he will never support all this, he’s not feeling good, it’s a learning process for us now,” Nandini Pal said.
“What provoked him to speak like that, nobody is trying to find out that. He didn’t have ill intentions, what he said wasn’t good at all, but the other side of story is different,” Nandini further said.
West Bengal Chief Minister has also called a meeting of Trinamool Congress MPs tomorrow to decide how to deal with this matter. Mamata’s party has given a 48-hour ultimatum to Tapas Pal to file his reply in this case.
Sparking widespread disbelief and disgust, actor-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal – one of the biggest names in Bengali films for over three decades – was caught on a video threatening to gun down his Marxist rivals and “unleash his boys for raping” women.
However, Tapas Pal has now made a U-turn on his brazen, ludicrous and insensitive statement, saying he did not use the word ‘rape’ and instead said ‘raid’.
The actor-turned-Trinamool Congress MP said that he was misquoted and argued that he had spoken in the heat of the moment.
Bengali news channels on Monday aired Paul, who is Lok Sabha member from Nadia district’s Krishnanagar constituency, warning Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) men to “beware” of him as he won’t “spare them and destroy their entire clan”.
“If a CPI-M man dares to touch anybody, Tapas Paul will not spare him. I will take out my gun and shoot him. I always carry a gun… I will destroy his entire clan,” Paul is seen in the video telling his party workers in Choumaha village.
“I warn my opponents… If anything happens to my mothers or sisters, my party workers, I will not spare them, I will have the last word. I will make their family pay dearly. I will ask my boys to go there. They will rape them and leave,” Paul said with his supporters shockingly cheering the MP’s every word.
“If I hear a single incident, I get a witness, I won’t spare,” he is heard saying.
Paul had made outrageous comments during last year’s panchayat poll campaign as well. “The CPI-M is a party of criminals.. beat them up, and drive them out of the villages,” he had said.
Joining the league of Trinamool leaders Anubrata Mandal and Manirul Islam – infamous for their hate speeches, Paul is seen in video grab repeatedly warning his opponents and threatening them with dire consequences, with his body language matching his words.
In his clarification. Pal said, “I might have said something in the heat of the moment. But the fact is I don’t roam around with a revolver. And I did not say rape, rather it was ‘raid’. I had said we will raid but because there was so much of noise, people thought I said rape.”
Trinamool spokesperson Derek O’Brien said termed Pal’s remarks “insensitive” and said the party did not “in any way endorse what he said weeks ago.”
Senior Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya demanded that Pal be immediately sacked as a Member of Parliament, while Marxist leader Malini Bhattacharya said her party will approach the women’s commission.
Paul shot into the limelight in 1980 by playing the title role in the blockbuster comedy “Dadar Kirti (The exploits of Dada (or elder brother))”. Since then he has acted in a large number of movies spread over nearly three and a half decades, playing the hero and lately settling for character roles. Some of his famous films are “Abodh” (Hindi) and Bengali hits “Pothbhola”, “Bhalobasa Bhaloibasa” and “Saheb”.