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By India Today News Desk: The chief of the Indian Youth Congress’s (IYC) Assam unit, Angkita Dutta, accused her colleague and IYC chief Srinivas BV of sexism and of mentally harassing her over her gender. She is the daughter of Anjan Dutta, who was a minister in Tarun Gogoi’s government in Assam and also headed the party’s state unit.
In multiple tweets, Dutta lashed out at Priyanka Gandhi and her brother, Rahul Gandhi, for failing to take any actions against Srinivas despite her complaints.
Despite her complaints, “no enquiry committee has been initiated against Srinivas”, she said.
“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),” Dutta said in one of her tweets, tagging Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi.
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“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.
Dutta said she had a “lot of faith” in Rahul Gandhi, whom she approached in Jammu during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
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“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, tagging Priyanka Gandhi.
“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.
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Dutta went on to remind the party leadership that she is a fourth generation Congress leader. “I am a fourth-generation congressman. I have contested internal organisation (elections) twice, made booth committee, was beaten by police. My education is from Pol Sc to LLB at Delhi University, to PhD at Guwahati University. We keep quiet for the sake of the party. But harassment doesn’t stop by Srinivas,” she said.
In response to her allegations, the legal cell of the IYC said it will initiate “strong legal action” against Dutta. “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.
With a collage of Dutta’s multiple tweets against Srinivas, the BJP’s IT-cell chief, Amit Malviya, said: “Dr Angkita Dutta, President of IYC Assam, alleges being harassed by Srinivas BV, IYC’s National President for her gender. She says that even after approaching Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, no inquiry committee has been constituted. Harassment of women is endemic in Congress ranksâæ”
In 2019, another Congress leader, Priyanka Chaturvedi, joined the Shiv Sena after some Congress workers, who misbehaved with her in Mathura, were reinstated.
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