Tapas Pal

For threatening rivals by saying he would send his party workers to rape their women

When Mamata Banerjee led the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to a historic victory over the Left in West Bengal, backing her were numerous faces of the intellectual and artistic fraternity of Bengal, many of whom also contested elections. But that didn’t make the political discourse in the state any more civilised.

This was evident recently, in the speech of an actor-turned- TMC MP Tapas Pal, where he, while addressing his party’s supporters, threatened to send his boys to the homes of the opposition to rape its female members. In another tape, he urges his supporters to slit the throats of the opposition. Pal, a two-term MP, is a much-feted award- winning Bengali actor known for portraying likeable characters, and the footage appears to have shocked everyone, from his party co-workers to former film colleagues.

While he eventually apologised for his comments, it was only after much media scrutiny, and he initially tried to brush aside the incident with a series of excuses ranging from how he had said ‘raid’ and not ‘rape’ to how old footage was being dug up for political vendetta. His party, meanwhile, is satisfied with the apology letter, and no further punitive action against him is being considered.

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