Bhubaneswar: All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba on Wednesday demanded resignation of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi over the death of a 20-year-old student following a self-immolation attempt, allegedly triggered by prolonged sexual harassment by a senior faculty member of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore and institutional inaction.
She further stated that President’s Rule must be imposed in the state “like Manipur”.
Lamba, who arrived in the state to meet the victim’s family, alleged that she died due to failure of the justice redressal system in Odisha. “This fight will continue till the women are safe on the land of Lord Jagannath, justice is delivered and criminals are punished. We have called for Odisha Bandh on July 17. Rahul Gandhi spoke to the father of the victim and expressed solidarity in their fight for justice. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has posted several messages on X in Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam. He should have, at least, posted one tweet in Odia, paying tributes to the victim and offering condolences to her family. The young woman was associated with the ABVP, the students’ wing of the RSS. In the name of probe, she was humiliated and forced to take the extreme step,” she alleged.
She said the CM, who is the head of the system, should resign since the state failed to protect its daughter. “The chief minister has no experience in running the government and has “failed” in one year. He had put up big posters of him with PM Modi across the state. But the reality is that entire Odisha is moving towards destruction and no woman or girl is safe in the state,” she claimed.
“The 20-year-old student had written letters to the CM, the woman Speaker, the woman Deputy CM , Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and the local MP and MLA, pleading for justice — but no one came forward to help her,” she further said, adding that they have lost the moral rights to continue in their posts.
The Congress leader said that the Congress-led opposition had pressed for the imposition of President’s Rule in Manipur and will demand the same in Odisha during the upcoming Lok Sabha session. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself earlier demanded imposition of President’s Rule in Rajasthan, alleging women and girls were not safe in the state. Then why should President’s Rule not be imposed in Odisha which is reporting such crimes against women?” she asked.
Earlier in the day, Lamba along with OPCC president Bhakta Das Odisha Mahila Congress president Meenakshi Bahinipati, and MLA Sofia Firdous paid tributes to the FM College student at Congress Bhawan here.