Guwahati: All Indian Youth Congress’s (IYC) Assam unit president Angkita Dutta has accused her colleague and IYC chief Srinivas BV of mentally harassing her over her gender.
Ankita is the daughter of late Anjan Dutta, who was a minister in Tarun Gogoi’s government in Assam and also headed the party’s state unit.
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In multiple tweets, Dutta slammed Priyanka Gandhi and her brother, Rahul Gandhi, for failing to take any actions against Srinivas despite her complaints.
“IYC President Srinivas BV has continually harassed me and was discriminating on the basis of my gender. My values and education doesn’t allow me anymore. The leadership has played deaf ears despite bring front of them many times (sic),” Ankita said in one of her tweets.
“I have kept quiet for months waiting for them to take action against him, yet no one seemed interested. Srinivas BV, in the guise of his PR, is getting away with all kinds of wrong doings. How can a sexist and a chauvinistic lead IYC, torture and demean a woman every single time? What happened to Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon’?” she asked.
Angkita said she had a “lot of faith” in Rahul Gandhi, whom she approached in Jammu during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“I had a lot of faith in Rahul Gandhi and went to Jammu during Bharat Jodo Yatra to appraise him of Srinivas BV’s harassment and demeaning use of language towards me. It’s April now and still no enquiry against him,” she said.
“Is this the safe space? Rahul Gandhi talks about women,” she said.
“I am a woman leader. If I undergo such harassment, how am I supposed to encourage women to join the Congress?” she asked.
“Srinivas thinks he is so powerful and has the blessings of big leaders that he can harass and demean a woman in the organisation. When previous IYC president Keshav Kumar sexually harassed and (it) came out because of #MeToo, he was compelled to be removed. Now despite being mentally harassed and discriminated by Srinivas for six months, I have been told to keep mum and no enquiry has been initiated,” she said.
Reacting to her allegations, the legal cell of the IYC said it will initiate “strong legal action” against Angkita.
“Dr Dutta has resorted to using utterly unparliamentary, undignified, defamatory, malicious words against IYC President Srinivas BV ji and has levelled totally frivolous allegations against him. The IYC Legal Cell is initiating strong/stringent legal action in respect of the same,” the legal cell of the IYC said in a tweet.