National Commission for Women (NCW) on Wednesday took up the matter of harassment of former Assam Youth Congress president Angkita Dutta by Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV and his IYC secretary-in-charge Vardhan Yadav, as reported by the news agency ANI. Youth Congress' (IYC) Assam chief Angkita Dutta on Tuesday accused IYC president Srinivas BV and IYC secretary in-charge Vardhan Yadav of continuously harassing her over her gender for the past six months.
She alleged in multiple tweets that Congress leaders Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi failed to take any action against Srinivas despite her complaints. Dutta 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.
Speaking to ANI, she said, "For the past 6 months, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV & his IYC secretary in-charge Vardhan Yadav have been harassing me continuously. I've complained about this to the leadership but till now no enquiry committee has been initiated against them."
“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 that she had appraised Rahul Gandhi about the harassment in Jammu during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, however, "still no enquiry" was initiated against him. “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.
“I am a woman leader. If I undergo such harassment, how am I supposed to encourage women to join the Congress?” she asked. In response to her allegations, the legal cell of IYC said, "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."
“Whoever is found indulged in propagating/peddling false & defamatory content against the@IYC President @srinivasiyc ji will be held liable under the relevant laws & will be held accountable for his own acts,” the IYC also said in a tweet.