Members of the BJP's Mahila Morcha gathered outside the Congress party office in New Delhi on Monday, calling for the removal of MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam from the party in connection with sexual harassment allegations that had previously resulted in his departure from Jawaharlal Nehru University and the filing of a police case against him.
Akoijam — who held a faculty position at JNU's Centre for the Study of Social Systems, part of the School of Social Sciences — was removed from his role last Friday following a university inquiry into sexual harassment allegations that he has disputed. A formal complaint lodged by JNU's chief security officer prompted officers at the Vasant Kunj North station to open a case that same Sunday.
Charges filed against Akoijam — the Lok Sabha member for Inner Manipur — span four provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, namely Sections 75, 75(1)(i), 75(1)(iv), and 79, which address offences including sexual harassment and conduct aimed at demeaning a woman's dignity. An inquiry was opened, officers confirmed.
Speaking to demonstrators gathered at the location, BJP Mahila Morcha national president Roop Kumari Choudhary alleged that the Member of Parliament had taken advantage of students, and called on the Congress party leadership to act against him, stating that the practice of granting marks as a pretext for such conduct warranted a firm organisational response. Choudhary called on Congress to remove the MP from the party, citing public demands for accountability over the treatment of women. The rally, she explained, was meant to put pressure on those in power to take reports of misconduct seriously and keep the push for women's accountability at the forefront.
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj took aim at the Congress leadership on Wednesday, questioning why party leader and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi — along with other senior figures — had not publicly addressed harassment allegations against one of the party's own MPs, noting that the absence of any response sat uneasily alongside the Congress slogan "Smash the Patriarchy." Pressing Rahul Gandhi to move beyond party rhetoric on women's rights, she posed a direct question: did his failure to speak out on the misconduct allegations against sitting MP Bimol Akoijam amount to quiet endorsement of the behaviour in question? Swaraj urged supporters of the "Smash the Patriarchy" cause to move beyond sloganeering by casting their votes against Bimol Akoijam.
In a Sunday statement, the Jawaharlal Nehru Teachers' Association contended that the decision to remove Akoijam had been taken without adequate deliberation and amid what the association described as efforts to exercise dismissal authority that, in its view, properly belongs to the Executive Council. A separate concern was raised over the fact that findings from JNU's Internal Complaints Committee had found their way into press coverage and were now in open circulation.
The JNUSU took issue with Akoijam's invocation of a "witch hunt," contending in a published statement that he had directed attention toward allegations of political and racial motivation rather than addressing what the union described as a pattern of predatory conduct on his part.
