During a programme organised by the Congress Sevadal in Gandhinagar to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, Tuesday, Gujarat Congress MLA Geniben Thakor called on women to pour petrol on those who commit crimes against women and publicly burn them alive. She stated that in the event of an atrocity, women should band together without waiting for police assistance and publicly burn the perpetrator.
“Without waiting for the police or the government to help us, whenever there is an atrocity, injustice against a woman, 50 nearby women should come together, douse the criminal with kerosene and set him on fire in the public,” said Thakor, who represents Vav Assembly constituency in the Banaskantha district.
Addressing the same event, another Congress MLA Chandrikaben Baria opined that the eyes of the ‘goons in this BJP government’, who look at women with ill-intention should be gouged out.
“I am sorry to say that we have to deal with goons in this BJP government. The eyes of those who look towards women (with an evil intention) would be gouged out,” said Baria, who represents Garbada, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) constituency.
Scuffle breaks out between Sevadal members and Gujarat police after former violates permissions
A report by Desh Gujarat suggests that a minor clash had also broken out between the Congress workers and the police after the aforementioned event. In what transpired, the police had only granted permission to conduct this event but the members of the Congress Seva Dal made an announcement at the end of the event that they would also be holding a march to the State Assembly, which the police objected to. Despite no permission being granted, Congress workers walked towards the state Assembly and sat on a dharna. They raised anti-BJP government slogans and rebuked the state administration for the increasing incidence of crime against women.
This resulted in a minor scuffle between Gandhinagar police and Congress workers, including Seva Dal national president Laljibhai Desai and Mahila Seva Dal Gujarat unit chief Pragati Ahir. The Police were compelled to use minimal force to prevent the Congress members staging dharna around the Assembly.
Reacting to the incident, the Superintendent of Police Mayur Chavda said that the police had specifically given permission to the Congress Seva Dal to organise the Mahila Divas programme. Some people made provocative remarks during the function and then left. Later, Congress workers announced that the march would take place. “This was a pre-planned conspiracy,” opined SP Mayur Chavda.
Congress stages walkout from Assembly to protest police ‘atrocities’ on their female workers
As expected, the Congress used the oppourtunity to launch an attack on the state administration. The Opposition Congress in Gujarat on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Assembly during the ongoing Budget session, protesting the alleged ‘physical assault and atrocities carried out on its female workers by male police officers’.
The @INCGujarat today walked out of the Legislative Assembly in protest of the atrocities committed by the police during a peaceful protest on the occasion of International Women’s Day led by the National President of @CongressSevadal Shri @LaljiDesaiG Ji. pic.twitter.com/Fz0CJO8nNN
— Gujarat Pradesh Congress Sevadal (@SevadalGJ) March 9, 2022
Former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amit Chavda told the House that the party’s female workers were demonstrating at the Satyagrah Chhavni in Gandhinagar on International Women’s Day on Tuesday after obtaining police permission. They were, however, physically assaulted by male police officers on direct orders from the state government, Chavda alleged.
Interestingly, despite the police making it clear that the Congress workers did not obtain any permission for the march to the State Assembly, Chavda claimed in the Assembly that the party’s female workers were demonstrating at the Satyagrah Chhavni in Gandhinagar after obtaining police permission. The fact that the Congress workers had headed towards the State Assembly without seeking prior police permission did not find any mention in Amit Chavda’s statement.
Gujarat Congress MLA Geniben Thakor famous for making controversial remarks
Meanwhile, Geniben Thakor, a Gujarat Congress MLA who was actively seen instigating women to take the law into their own hands, has previously been in the news for other contentious remarks. In July 2019, the Congress MLA had extended her support to the resolution adopted by Thakor community in Banaskantha district which bans unmarried girls from using mobile phones. The resolution also banned inter-caste marriage. She said that such a ban would put a stop to ‘such incidents’.
Congress MLA Geniben Thakor justified the move by saying that such ban on usage of mobile phones by unmarried girls will ‘automatically control the boys’. “Since girls are easily controlled because they stay with their parents, it is right to ban the mobile phones for girls,” she said.
Prior to this too, while addressing a farmers’ gathering in 2018, Geniben Thakor had said that she was pained by the plight of the farmers and if it were up to her, she would kill them (BJP leaders) and go to jail if it were to come to that.
