Bengal minister Swapan Debnath on Wednesday launched a verbal attack on those participating in post-RG Kar protests, particularly women, alleging that many of them get drunk in the name of reclaiming the night.

In a statement reeking of misogyny and moral policing, Debnath urged the parents of women to monitor the activities of their daughters, because if anything untoward happened, the Trinamool Congress-led government would be blamed.

“Just last night (Sunday), I got information that a girl and two boys were drinking. I went there at 2am and saw they were drinking beer. Their parents were called and asked, ‘Do you know which night protest your daughter went to?’ The police picked them up later,” said the animal resources development minister at a public event in East Burdwan's Kalna on Monday.

“If something happened to that girl, in an inebriated condition, then we would have been held responsible,” he added, days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee warned cabinet colleagues against making statements on the RG Kar tragedy and protests in public.

Earlier this month, her nephew and heir apparent, Abhishek banerjee, had issued a public appeal to the Trinamool ecosystem, urging everyone against speaking ill of anybody from the medical fraternity or the civil society in the wake of the RG Kar tragedy, while endorsing their right to protest and freedom of expression.

Debnath went on.

“Many people know about these incidents but they don’t say anything. I am compelled to say this because our boys have to guard them at night,” he said adding: “I am not here to insult anyone.”

The MLA of Purbasthali Dakshin in East Burdwan also said that in his area, he had observed women purchasing alcohol at night. He added that after personally investigating, he had asked eatery-owners not to serve alcohol to women at night.

“It is my responsibility too,” he said.

Debnath joined the ceaselessly growing list of unbridled negativity, misogyny, and biting sarcasm — even threats — from several leaders of Trinamool, including at least a dozen MPs and MLAs in public, towards protesters, even as agitation programmes demanding justice refused to die down.

When contacted by this newspaper, Debnath declined comment.

Contacted for a reaction, CPM state secretary Md Salim said: “I don’t even feel like speaking on this. They have become so arrogant that they believe they can do anything. This only shows the deplorable culture of the party."

BJP leader Locket Chatterjee, in a similar vein, said she didn’t know how to react to Debnath's statement.

“The people who make these kinds of statements are rewarded by their party. So it is their culture…. Over the past few days, I have seen many senior ministers and party leaders (in the Trinamool Congress) making such derogatory remarks. They are trying to malign the movement but they will not be successful,” Chatterjee said.