NEW DELHI: After facing backlash over her remarks on the Durgapur gang-rape case, West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Sunday said her comments were “distorted” by the media.Also Read – ‘Girls have to protect themselves’: Mamata’s shocker in MBBS student rape case; vows strict action against guilty “The media distorted my words. You ask me a question, I answer it, and then you distort it. Do not try this kind of politics,” news agency ANI quoted her as saying in Alipurduar, where she was visiting flood- and landslide-hit areas in north Bengal.Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters at Kolkata airport while departing for north Bengal, Banerjee had remarked that “girls should avoid going out late at night.”The remarks sparked a furious backlash, with the opposition BJP, in particular, targeting the chief minister.BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla targeted the Congress over its silence on the issue, saying, “Will the outrage lobby who was shouting yesterday — Supriya Shrinate, Priyanka Vadra, Rahul Gandhi, etc. — open their mouths now?” Poonawalla was referring to the controversy surrounding the exclusion of female journalists from Friday’s press conference of visiting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.Another BJP spokesperson, Gaurav Bhatia, accused Mamata Banerjee of indulging in “victim-blaming.” “Shameless @MamataOfficial, a blot on womanhood, even more for being a CM. After RG Kar and Sandeshkhali, now this horrific case of rape and instead of justice, she blames the victim,” Bhatia wrote on social media, referring to two recent high-profile cases of crimes against women in West Bengal. He also demanded that Banerjee “resign” and “be held accountable under the law.”
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