Why Jolly's antics may divert focus off the Tarun Tejpal case

What a little known BJP leader Vijay Jolly achieved today by vandalising former Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury’s residence, was a stain on his party’s image and exposure of his persona as a discourteous individual towards women. “This (Tarun Tejpal sexual assault case) is an extremely serious matter and should be dealt with by courts with due respect to women. What Tejpal did was disrespectful towards women and what Jolly did today was also disrespectful towards women. This case should not be reduced to a comical farce,” said president of LiberalsIndia for Good Governance, Meera Sanyal on CNN-IBN during a discussion programme India @ 9.[caption id=“attachment_1256257” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BJP leader Vijay Jolly. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost [/caption] Jolly’s act of vandalism today morning not only forced the Bharatiya Janata Party into an embarrassing situation but also armed Congress with ammunition to take on the saffron party that is already reeling under Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged snooping scandal. “What Jolly did today was naked vandalism when he attacked Shoma Chaudhury’s house. It is the BJP which is by a steadfast design of politicising the issue even allowing pygmies to go and attack a lady editor’s house,” said Haryana minister and Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala. “It is a clear case where Tejpal has been accused of sexual assault and must be dealt with in accordance to law.” Appearing on the defensive over Jolly’s antics, the BJP sought to minismise the damage by promising action on the erring former South Delhi legislator. “The party leadership would be discussing it in the right time. The party as a collective conscience has distanced itself from this whole fiasco. We as a party are for women,” said party spokesperson Sambit Patra even not ruling out suspension of Jolly from the party. The Congress representative, who was present on the show, refused to agree to the “dissociate argument” provided by the BJP. “What is this dissociate about? The BJP should throw Jolly out of the party,” Surjewala said. Patra, however, did not leave this frontal assault from the Congress without retaliation. “The Congress has quite a few times dissociate themselves when their leaders have tweeted something out or said something in public. Why is the Congress also so pained with the speed with which the Goa Police and the Goa chief minister is dealing with the case?” he asked. The BJP leader did not take the blame that political leaders are fame hungry and only responds to those cases where there are television cameras. “Politicians cannot take up all the cases because we do not know about it. We get to know about them only when the media brings it to the fore,” said Patra. Moneylife Magazine, managing editor, Sucheta Dalal was unhappy with the media for giving Jolly importance. “Media should not give time to these people. Editorial time is expensive and he got it for free,” Dalal said. But Sanyal praised the role of the media in the whole Tarun Tejpal case. “I must first praise the courage of the young girl. But thanks to the media and the moral outrage of the civil society this case is remarkable in itself because it is the man who is named and shamed publicly and the woman despite the man being a high profile editor. We as women need to shame men whenever something like this happens. But we must look into ourselves as well. Senior women should stand up for their junior women colleagues at workplaces,” she said. “This is the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case for India and it will force people in public life in India to change themselves,” Sanyal said. Dalal chose to differ from Sanyal’s observation. “This is an one-off case of moral outrage. We should not extrapolate this case. The outrage was obvious because of the sheer hypocrisy of Tehelka that has appalled everyone. Let us not forget that the warrant was issued by an magistrate whereas it is not even needed,” she said. What disturbed lawyer Nandita Rao was the apathy of the Delhi Police towards booking Jolly and his supporters “Why is the Delhi Police not arresting this guy? He attacked the lady’s house, terrorised her children,” Rao said. She also expressed displeasure with the handling of the law intern alleged sexual assault incident by a former Supreme Court judge. The judiciary has conducted itself in not so an awe-inspiring manner. Things have not moved fast in the Supreme Court. I am surprised that the the committee appointed to investigate the case has kept the name of the accused out of public domain," Rao said.