Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party gathered on Monday to hold a demonstration and march toward the Congress party office, calling for accountability over sexual harassment allegations levelled against Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, who holds a parliamentary seat under the Congress banner and a faculty position at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Roop Kumari Choudhary, who heads the BJP Mahila Morcha at the national level, addressed the demonstration, stating that a Congress MP had used the promise of marks as a means to take advantage of students — a practice the organisation views as unacceptable. Protesters called on Congress to remove the MP from the party, with demonstrators also directing questions at Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi over their public silence on the matter.
Choudhary told those gathered that the lack of response on the matter pointed, in her view, to a willingness to protect individuals facing allegations of sexual exploitation.
Posting on X, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta noted that eleven female students at JNU had brought forward harassment complaints against Congress MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam. The university terminated his appointment, and a formal complaint was lodged with the police. No legislative action followed from Congress.
West Delhi MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat claimed that women who travelled to Congress party offices to seek answers about the party's silence were physically and verbally attacked by associates of Rahul Gandhi. She further stated that an internal inquiry committee had found professor Akoijam responsible for misconduct, leading to his removal from the university.
Notwithstanding the allegation, he retained his seat as a Member of Parliament from the Congress party. Sehrawat noted that students travel from across the country to attend the university in pursuit of academic advancement and a better future, and that students tend to view their teachers as trusted guides, looking to them for a sense of security, acknowledgement, and direction.
She argued that harassment allegations against a teacher, when followed by an adverse finding from an inquiry committee, amounted to a matter that reflected poorly on the nation as a whole, and called on Rahul Gandhi to issue a public apology. She went on to say that the call for action was rooted in accountability rather than political advantage, with the stated aims being justice for those affected, protection of women's rights, and safer conditions across educational settings.
Bansuri Swaraj, the MP for New Delhi, described the Congress leadership's lack of response to the allegations as something she found difficult to explain.
Demonstrations outside the university followed JNU's decision to end Akoijam's employment, a move taken after an internal inquiry examined complaints of sexual harassment raised by women students. A formal complaint lodged by the university's chief security officer on 11 October prompted Delhi Police to open a case against him at Vasant Kunj North station earlier that same Monday. No statement addressing the allegations was put forward by Congress.