Only a day after resigning as chief whip of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, senior parliamentarian Kalyan Banerjee rekindled his public spat with another party colleague, Mahua Moitra, and charged her with ingratitude, also lamenting that he had ever stood up for her.
"In 2023, I defended Ms. Moitra when she was at odds with Parliament - I did so on conviction, not coercion." Now, she repays me that favor by labeling me a misogynist. I owe the country an apology for having stood up for a person who manifestly has no sense of gratitude. Let people read her words for what they are and judge accordingly," wrote Mr. Banerjee, the Serampore MP, on X, with a clip of his previous speech in support of Moitra.
Shortly following Banerjee's statement, Mahua Moitra extended her best wishes to MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Satabdi Roy on their recent leadership positions in the Lok Sabha.
"Heartfelt congratulations to my senior colleagues @kakoligdastidar & @SatabdiRoyMP for being nominated Chief Whip & Deputy Leader of AITC in Lok Sabha. God bless & shine on," she tweeted on X.
The tension between the two leaders has been brewing for months, with the latest round of defiance coming from a podcast interview by Ms. Moitra. Asked to comment on Banerjee's barbs in the verbal sphere, she said, "You don't wrestle with a pig. Because the pig likes it and you get dirty. There are deeply misogynistic, sexually frustrated, depraved men in India and they have their representation in parliament across all parties."
The confrontation between the two MPs had been front-page news earlier in June, following Mr. Banerjee's controversy over remarks regarding campus security following a rape case involving a college student. "If someone gets raped by his or her friend, how can you provide security? Police will be there in schools?" he had remarked. The Trinamool Congress broke away from the comment, and Mahua Moitra replied, "Misogyny in India transcends party lines.
What sets @AITCofficial apart is that we denounce such abominable comments regardless of who utters them."
Banerjee, too, struck back by bringing up personal attacks on Moitra's recent wedding to former BJD MP Pinaki Misra. "She is alleging that I am anti-women. What is she? She has ruptured a family and married a 65-year-old guy. And she is accusing me of being anti-women," he stated.
When Moitra's "pig" comparison went viral on social media, Banerjee retaliated, saying, "The deployment of dehumanising language like comparing a colleague MP to a 'pig', is not just unfortunate but a sign of deep disrespect for elementary norms of civil discourse."
Defending his position, he continued, “What I did speak about were questions of public accountability and personal conduct, which every public figure must be prepared to face - man or woman. If those facts are inconvenient or uncomfortable, it does not justify branding legitimate criticism as 'misogyny' to escape scrutiny.”
The Trinamool parliamentarian also attacked Moitra's words, stating, "Calling a male colleague 'sexually frustrated' isn't courage - it's abuse. If one says this to a woman, there would be outrage across the country and rightfully so. But when a man is targeted, it's belittled or actually cheered. Let us be clear: abuse is abuse – no matter what gender.".
Such comments are not only indecent, but they perpetuate a poisonous double standard in which men must remain silent about what would never be allowed to happen were roles reversed."
Banerjee had also stated his resignation as chief whip after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke in a virtual meeting where she observed a lack of coordination among party MPs. "So the blame is on me.
Hence, I have decided to step down," he stated. Sources state that Ms. Banerjee has advised party MPs to put aside the internal differences and focus on keeping the central government in check, particularly with the exercise of Special Intensive Revision on. As Assembly elections draw near next year, the ruling West Bengal party is keen on coming back to power for a fourth term in a row under Mamata Banerjee's leadership.
