Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Friday demanded the sacking of the city's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Raj Purohit for making derogatory references to a college girl who captured on camera a vendor urinating in a serving vessel last month.
MNS legislator Bala Nandgaonkar said Purohit's utterances against the girl, Ankita Rane, were an insult to the women of the state and BJP must sack him. Purohit questioned the character of Ankita Rane, 19, who shot on camera Rajdev Lakkhan Chauhan peeing in a serving vessel at his 'panipuri' stall in Navpada area of Thane April 12.
Questioning the authenticity of the sting operation, Purohit wanted to know why Ankita was spying on "an old, sick man" urinating. "Go and see, even the women in the redlight areas would not do such a thing," Purohit said in a public meeting last week in Mumbai, questioning Ankita's motives.
A day after the expose, the MNS destroyed over 200 stalls selling panipuris in the city and Thane. While the MNS felicitated Ankita for highlighting the issue, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam conducted a hygiene camp for street food vendors after the incident. Under attack from various quarters, Purohit on Friday tendered an oral apology to Ankita Rane and also promised to tender a written one after a couple of days since he was out of Mumbai. Not satisfied with this, Nandgaonkar blasted the BJP leader for displaying his and the party's "culture" by such derogatory utterances and playing politics with an ordinary college girl to boost his North Indian vote bank. A majority of Mumbai's vendors who sell panipuri and bhelpuri hail from north India. MNS activists and some womens' organisations in Mumbai, Thane and other parts of the state held protests against Purohit.