Abhijit Mukherjee on Tapas Pal's Rape Threat: It was a 'Slip of the Tongue'

New Delhi: Tapas Pal, the Trinamool Congress MP universally denounced for his shocking comments on rape, has found support from a fellow member of Parliament. (Tapas Pal Does Not Deserve to Sit in Parliament: CPM)

Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of President Pranab Mukherjee, has suggested that Mr Pal be excused for what he has called "a slip of the tongue."

Mr Pal was caught on camera telling party workers, "If CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) tries to kill and intimidate our workers, I will not spare them. I will let loose my boys to rape their women." Amid widespread outrage and calls for his arrest and resignation, he issued a letter of apology. (Tapas Pal's Rape Threat: Trinamool Spares MP With An Apology)

Mr Mukherjee, who like Mr Pal is a West Bengal MP but belongs to the rival Congress, said, "Many times, people say things due to a slip of tongue. We have all been guilty of this at one time or the other. He has apologized unconditionally on this and his party has forgiven him. The matter should end here.'' ('Chop Their Heads, Slit Their Throats': More From Tapas Pal)

Abhijit Mukherjee, 54, who describes Tapas Pal, 55, as a "friend", knows something about controversial comments and "unconditional apologies". In December 2012, only months after his father had taken over as India's President, he observed that "dented and painted women'' were protesting on the streets of Delhi against the brutal gang-rape of a para-medic student days before. ('What Should I do? Kill Him?': Mamata Banerjee Snaps at Media Over MP's Rape Remark Row)

He had quickly apologised, much like Mr Pal, whose party chief Mamata Banerjee has accepted the apology as the end of the controversy. 

But the MPs from the Left, of which the CPM is a part, met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today and pressed for the Trinamool leader's  expulsion from the House. They are expected to raise the issue when the two Houses of Parliament meet for the budget session from July 7. (For Trinamool MP Tapas Pal's Rape Threat, Wife's Apology and Defence)

The Speaker is learnt to have told the Left that she will go through House rules before taking a call on their demand.