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Lawmaker postures as lawbreaker

• The Statesman
• 01 Jul 2014

Top gangster’ Tapas Paul threatens to kill CPM activists, get women raped

 
UDAY BASU (With inputs from Soma Mookherjee and Biswabrata Goswami)
uday@thestatesman.net 
Kolkata, 30 June 
Here's one more addition to the list of Trinamul Congress lawmakers posturing as lawbreakers. 
And this time around it's film star-turned-politician Tapas Paul who openly declared he “carries a revolver” which he would use to “liquidate” CPI-M activists and claimed he was a top “gangster”.
Mr Paul made these startling and controversial remarks at the height of electioneering during the last Lok Sabha polls. The video footage of his high decibel threats and ranting was telecast by some private channels during the day triggering protests from politicians and civil society groups.
Mr Paul was addressing a gathering at Choumaha village at Nakashipara in Nadia, which is a part of his parliamentary constituency ~ Krishnagar. He began his torrent of threats in the style and language of gangsters.
“I'm a chap from Chandernagar and not from Kolkata. I know very well what gangsterism is, I tried my hand in it as well. I also carry that thing, you know what it is (he puts his fingers in the shape of a revolver trigger) and with it I'll liquidate our opponents if they touch any of our party supporters,” he thundered.
Then came the nastiest and horrifying one : “I'll send them (party supporters) to rape (women belonging to the opposite camp).”
When contacted, Mr Paul flatly denied he had used the word ~ “rape” and claimed :"I actually said I would send the police and party supporters to raid (the village) and not rape.” 
Explaining the circumstances that “forced” him to make the remarks, Mr Paul said at that time CPI-M-backed goons had unleashed a reign of terror in the area and he had to rush to the village in order to “boost the morale of party supporters.”
“I admit I had to use a very aggressive language to match the terror campaign by the CPI-M. Otherwise, our party supporters would have been demoralised and terrorised,” he said.
However, Trinamul national spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien said : “The statements made by Mr Tapas Pal are utterly insensitive. The party does not in any way endorse what he said many weeks ago, which is being played out on TV channels today.”
On the other hand, Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said in the first place it has to be examined in what context Mr Paul had made those remarks and what the CPI-M had done to provoke him to behave in such a manner. 
“Of course, it's highly improper for even ordinary persons to speak in such a language and in the case of Mr Paul this is unthinkable,” Mr Chatterjee added.
In a way Mr Paul followed in the footsteps of Manirul Haque, MLA and party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal. The latter had exhorted his party activists to throw bombs at the police and set fire to the houses of CPI-M cadres. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee even went to the length of saying that Mr Mondal was being wrongly targeted. “He is a patient and less oxygen flows to his brains. Whatever he said should be seen in that light,” she stated.
(With inputs from Soma Mookherjee     and Biswabrata Goswami)