Abhijit Mukherjee's row: Parties must discipline their politicians making misogynistic comments

Abhijit Mukherjee, a first-time member of Parliament from West Bengal, has shocked people all over India with his misogynistic remarks about women who are protesting the brutal rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi.

Talking to a television channel, he said that he did not believe that there were students among the protestors, because they were all 'pretty women who were dented and painted.'

Though Mukherjee later withdrew his comments and apologised, he is not alone among politicians and lawmakers in expressing biased and sexist opinions about women.

A few days ago, Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana told journalists that just because India achieved freedom at midnight, it did not mean that women could venture out after dark. He also described the Delhi rape as a 'minor incident,' which could be forgotten because party president Sonia Gandhi had met some protestors.

Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has linked Delhi's street agitators to Maoists and justified his refusal to engage with them by arguing that even if 100 tribals were killed in Gadchiroli, he would not go to talk with anyone there.

These deep-seated biases cut across party lines: the BJP's Sushma Swaraj put her foot in her mouth in Parliament by declaring the rape victim to be a living corpse, implying that life was not worth living for rape victims. Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of Bengal, repeatedly denied a horrifying gang rape in Kolkata's Park Street.

She also tried to tarnish the character of the victim and finally, transferred the woman police officer who managed to identify the rapists - establishing the crime - to a different post.

Under her watch, the police seem to have lost all interest in cracking the case. The people of Bengal will judge Banerjee's actions, the BJP should pull up Swaraj.

But the Congress has to take action against its members who spout this toxic rhetoric. After all, the leader of the party and the head of the ruling coalition is a woman. She should take measures to make party members more sensitive to gender issues and take action against those who cross the line.