Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has sought permission from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to file a complaint accusing his party colleague Kalyan Banerjee of misogyny and repeated verbal abuse.
Ghosh Dastidar, in a letter to Birla, alleged that Banerjee “repeatedly verbally abused” her inside the Lok Sabha chamber. “This misogyny was directed against many members and they should be punished,” she added.
Two days earlier, she resigned from her position as head of the TMC’s women’s wing, saying in her resignation letter that the party had been unable to protect her from mistreatment of her fellow MP, in an apparent reference to Banerjee. He has also replaced her as TMC chief whip in the Lok Sabha.
By stepping down from key positions, Ghosh Dastidar has distanced himself from the party. Her formal complaint against Banerjee sparks a new conflict within the embattled TMC.
A senior Lok Sabha official said Birla is out of town but may look into the issue as it involves a complaint filed by a senior female MP. According to the procedure, if Birla decides to go ahead with the complaint, he must form an inquiry committee.
Accusations of misogyny and frequent verbal abuse among party colleagues are certainly rare in the history of the Lok Sabha. A formal complaint adds more seriousness to the matter, and with a senior parliamentarian making allegations against another MP, the Speaker of Parliament is expected to handle the issue with the necessary sensitivity.
Politically, Dastidar is further alienated from the TMC at a time when there is a wave of resignations of TMC leaders at the grassroots level.
On Wednesday, Banerjee responded to Dastidar, reminding the media of what she had dealt with $5 lakh in the Narada sting operation and accused it of supporting illegal unions of raw material suppliers in Kolkata.
“After something happens on the ground, the Speaker should be informed immediately, that is the rule. Any incident should be reported to the Speaker without delay. As for the allegations being made, the question is who said what and when. The problem is their intentions. They seem to be acting on impulse, which raises my suspicions,” Banerjee said in Delhi.
