Fans of porn are those most offended: Anjan
CPI leader from UP who saw red over a Sunny Leone condom advertisement doggedly stands by his comments.
A day after he made headlines by saying the Manforce condom TV advertisement featuring Bollywood actor Sunny Leone will only increase instances of rape, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Kumar Anjan stood by the position he took at a rally in Gazipur, Uttar Pradesh.
“I have not said anything wrong. Have you seen the advertisement? She is nearly naked, showing her thighs. I can’t go on,” Anjan said when Mumbai Mirror met him at the austere Ajoy Bhavan, the CPI headquarters in New Delhi.
To press his point, he adds, “Would a man in his senses commit rape? It’s only when he gets mad he does such things. If I have to apologise then maybe the apology should be to the supporters of pornography. They are the most offended.”
Condom advertisements, Anjan feels, should be like the ones produced by the government, which advocate their use to keep a healthy gap between babies and safeguard women’s health. “I am not against condoms,” he insists.
The little-known Left leader has the distinction of losing four Lok Sabha elections -- the first in 1991 from Balrampur and other three in 2004, 2009, 2014 from CPI’s traditional UP bastion of Ghosi. In the 2014 general elections, he polled merely 18,000 votes.
Failure, however, does not seem to deter Anjan, who says he is bracing for another fight if given the chance. Between elections, he is a regular on television debates, fighting verbal duels on most nights.
“Arre woh toh asmaan se aate hai election ladne, aur ladkar wapas chale jaate hain (He comes down from the skies to fight elections, then leaves),” says Hari Narayan Rajbhar, the BJP MP who defeated him in Ghosi.
Anjan started as a student’s leader in Lucknow, and was president of Lucknow University’s union for six years in the ’70s. He completed his law degree from there.
He has a long list of qualifications ranging from a diploma in Criminology to a masters degree in Public Administration, but ask him his age and he clams up. “I am not going to reveal my age. You can mention it when you write my obituary,” he says.
Anjan was born in Lucknow to a freedom-fighter couple and grew up there. “As a child, I have sat on the shoulders of the revolutionary, Batukeshwar Dutt. My father was in jail in connection with the Kakori conspiracy,” he says.
He married Bharti Sinha, whose father Indradeep Sinha was a CPI MP from Bihar. It was in his fatherin-law’s MP quarters on Pandara Road where Anjan stayed during his trips to Delhi. The couple, separated now, have a 26-year-old daughter.
Anjan came to Delhi in 1993, when he rose in the ranks to become the CPI’s national secretary – “the youngest,” he claims.
Within the party, he is somewhat of a loner. For the last three decades, the party has barely had any presence in north India, and Anjan’s is the only north Indian face at Ajoy Bhavan. He is also general secretary of the party’s farmer union, the All India Kisan Sabha, where he has good following among cadres.
Anjan’s anti-Leone video has left several of his comrades embarrassed. “These comments are very anti-Marxists. Marx talked about women as comrades-in-arms. Such words do not behove a CPI leader,” a senior party leader said.
A day after he made headlines by saying the Manforce condom TV advertisement featuring Bollywood actor Sunny Leone will only increase instances of rape, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Kumar Anjan stood by the position he took at a rally in Gazipur, Uttar Pradesh.
“I have not said anything wrong. Have you seen the advertisement? She is nearly naked, showing her thighs. I can’t go on,” Anjan said when Mumbai Mirror met him at the austere Ajoy Bhavan, the CPI headquarters in New Delhi.
In the video of the rally that has been doing the rounds since Wednesday, Anjan is seen talking about the advertisement in detail and criticising Leone. “These ads develop sexuality and destroy sensibility. If such ads are not stopped, rapes will also not stop,” he says.
To press his point, he adds, “Would a man in his senses commit rape? It’s only when he gets mad he does such things. If I have to apologise then maybe the apology should be to the supporters of pornography. They are the most offended.”
Condom advertisements, Anjan feels, should be like the ones produced by the government, which advocate their use to keep a healthy gap between babies and safeguard women’s health. “I am not against condoms,” he insists.
The little-known Left leader has the distinction of losing four Lok Sabha elections -- the first in 1991 from Balrampur and other three in 2004, 2009, 2014 from CPI’s traditional UP bastion of Ghosi. In the 2014 general elections, he polled merely 18,000 votes.
Failure, however, does not seem to deter Anjan, who says he is bracing for another fight if given the chance. Between elections, he is a regular on television debates, fighting verbal duels on most nights.
“Arre woh toh asmaan se aate hai election ladne, aur ladkar wapas chale jaate hain (He comes down from the skies to fight elections, then leaves),” says Hari Narayan Rajbhar, the BJP MP who defeated him in Ghosi.
Anjan started as a student’s leader in Lucknow, and was president of Lucknow University’s union for six years in the ’70s. He completed his law degree from there.
He has a long list of qualifications ranging from a diploma in Criminology to a masters degree in Public Administration, but ask him his age and he clams up. “I am not going to reveal my age. You can mention it when you write my obituary,” he says.
Anjan was born in Lucknow to a freedom-fighter couple and grew up there. “As a child, I have sat on the shoulders of the revolutionary, Batukeshwar Dutt. My father was in jail in connection with the Kakori conspiracy,” he says.
He married Bharti Sinha, whose father Indradeep Sinha was a CPI MP from Bihar. It was in his fatherin-law’s MP quarters on Pandara Road where Anjan stayed during his trips to Delhi. The couple, separated now, have a 26-year-old daughter.
Anjan came to Delhi in 1993, when he rose in the ranks to become the CPI’s national secretary – “the youngest,” he claims.
Within the party, he is somewhat of a loner. For the last three decades, the party has barely had any presence in north India, and Anjan’s is the only north Indian face at Ajoy Bhavan. He is also general secretary of the party’s farmer union, the All India Kisan Sabha, where he has good following among cadres.
Anjan’s anti-Leone video has left several of his comrades embarrassed. “These comments are very anti-Marxists. Marx talked about women as comrades-in-arms. Such words do not behove a CPI leader,” a senior party leader said.
