It was not as if what she did on Friday was not premeditated. Nobody can deny that she has a sense of purpose. She came to Parliament with an action plan and that plan was necessiated by the need to generate the next day’s headlines.She has not been in the public eye of late except for reasons she would rather wish way; sundry matters like the rout in state-level municipal elections and the bypolls, to name only one. She has formed a conglomerate going by the name of Progressive Alliance with a politician called Suresh Kalmadi but even her diehard supporters know that this alliance does not have a single Lok Sabha MP who can add to her politics of blackmailing the Centre. But she is not one to give up.

On Friday, even as the rest of the MPs were gearing themselves up for a lively debate on the Women’s Bill which was to be tabled by the Government, she chose to hit out, not verbally though, at the unsuspecting Samajwadi MP, Mr Daroga Parasad Saroj, and literally dragged the man by his collar on an excuse which she later coined as ``self-defence.’’ Eyewitnesses recalled that there was no offence in the first place and that she had found a soft target in Mr Daroga to generate news. And to keep the icing on the cake intact, she even called him a Dalit and has till date, not even shown any remorse or inclination to even apologise in any form for her conduct. But she has never been destined to say sorry, anyway.

Fortunately, India’s Parliament has seen many women MPs who have done the nation proud. Like veteran MP Gita Mukherjee who said, ``This is an punishable offence. I do not understand whether she is actually for or against the Bill. The Speaker was not even in his chair and so there was no question of tearing copies of the Bill as she has alleged. We knew that the Government would try and put spokes and so we had devised a strategy by which we could have silently allowed the Bill to be introduced. She has only harmed the cause of the Bill.’’

Veteran Parliamentarian Prof Asima Chaterjee feels that the dignity of women has been lowered in general.``I have seen many sorts of unruly behaviour. But this one takes the cake. She could have walked out of the House or participated in the discussions. Why she had to physically assault another colleague remains beyond my comprehension. She should have been marshalled out.’’

Kanak Mukherjee also does not have words to express her ``shock.’’ She said, ``I would like to hang my head in shame.She behaved like an antisocial. She is slur on the name of our culture. Why she is played up by the newspapers, I fail to understand.’’

Another elderly stateswoman, Ms Phulurenu Guha, is aghast.``I had been a Parliamentarian for a long time. In fact, I have seen her grow up in Calcutta. I never expected this from her. I have a feeling that she has done this keeping in mind that the proceedings were going out live to millions of viewers through television.’’

But she is privileged. As Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi Party, of which Mr Daroga is an MP, has pointed out: ``This is not Bengal. We will not take her antics lying down.She has to apologise to us and the nation. Otherwise, we will not allow Parliament to function.’’ Mr Yadav, it is widely known, means business. But the problem is that she, after being let off by the Bengal administration on various occasions, also means business, though of a different kind. This Winter Session of Parliament is important, indeed vital, since it involves the introduction of and debate on the Insurance Bill, Patents Bill and the Womens Bill. She is not one to see reason and is expected to keep firm on her stand that she, like Caesar’s wife, can do no wrong.