Anger over the recent assault on a Tripura student in Gurugram erupted in Agartala on Thursday as the Tripura Pradesh Mahila Congress staged a protest outside the Congress Bhavan, condemning what it termed a nationwide failure to ensure women’s safety.
Party workers gathered in large numbers, raising slogans and demanding stronger action against crimes targeting women. In a symbolic gesture of protest, demonstrators burnt an effigy of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, holding him accountable for what they described as inadequate preventive and corrective measures to curb violence against women.
Addressing the gathering, Pradesh Mahila Congress president Sarbani Ghosh Chakraborty said the Gurugram assault was not an isolated episode but part of a disturbing and recurring pattern of atrocities against women across the country. She alleged that despite repeated claims of women’s empowerment by the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Tripura, the ground reality reflects growing insecurity.
“Not only the Gurugram incident, similar heinous crimes against women are occurring in various parts of the country and in Tripura as well. The ruling BJP-led government that boasts about women’s empowerment is doing little to protect them from violence,” she said.
Protesters demanded urgent reforms, stricter enforcement of existing laws, fast-track investigations, and greater accountability from authorities. They stressed the need for concrete action rather than assurances, arguing that repeated incidents have eroded public confidence in the system.
The demonstration highlighted rising frustration among Mahila Congress activists, who asserted that symbolic gestures like effigy burning were intended to send a strong message to the central government that silence and inaction on women’s safety would no longer be tolerated.
