Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Bansuri Swaraj on Tuesday, 14 October 2026, alleged that Congress national-level office-bearer and chief media coordinator Sanjeev Singh physically assaulted and manhandled BJP Mahila Morcha workers during their protest outside the Congress headquarters in New Delhi on Monday. The demonstration had been called over allegations of sexual harassment of female students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by a Congress MP.

What Bansuri Swaraj Alleged

Addressing the press on Tuesday, the BJP MP from the New Delhi constituency said that Sanjeev Singh reached the protest site and began assaulting the BJP women workers. "Not only that, he repeatedly pushed them, behaved indecently and acted in an unbecoming manner," Swaraj said, according to her statement to reporters.

She further accused the Congress of hypocrisy, arguing that the party's frequent invocation of the slogan 'Smash the Patriarchy' rang hollow given the alleged conduct at its own headquarters. "Leaders at the top of the Congress, who raise the hollow slogan of 'Smash the Patriarchy', sometimes assault women police personnel and at other times attack women journalists," she said.

The JNU Sexual Harassment Case at the Centre of the Row

The BJP Mahila Morcha's protest on Monday was directed at the Congress over two specific grievances: allegations of sexual misconduct by an unnamed Congress MP and the case of sacked JNU professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam. Workers raised slogans including "JNU ki 11 betiyan nyay ki hakdaar betiyan" (JNU's 11 daughters deserve justice), demanding accountability for the 11 JNU female students who reportedly filed complaints.

Swaraj noted that JNU's Internal Committee had found the concerned individual guilty of sexual misconduct and that the university had subsequently terminated his services. She alleged that despite this, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the party's top leadership have maintained what she called "a deafening silence" on the matter.

BJP Women MPs Meet President Murmu

In a separate development on Tuesday, a group of BJP women MPs met President Droupadi Murmu to draw her attention to the charges against the Congress parliamentarian. They reportedly argued that the gravity of the allegations made it untenable for him to continue in his position. The delegation's visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan underscores the BJP's decision to escalate the issue beyond street protests to the constitutional level.

The Broader Context: A Pattern of Charges and Counter-Charges

The BJP's allegations come alongside a separate incident involving the alleged manhandling of a woman journalist at a Congress event — a reference Swaraj used to reinforce her charge of "double standards" within the party. Critics of the BJP, however, argue that the protest is politically motivated and timed to embarrass the opposition. The Congress has not issued an official response to the specific allegations of assault made by Swaraj against Sanjeev Singh.

This is the latest in a series of confrontations between the two parties centred on gender politics, with both sides accusing the other of selective outrage. How the Congress chooses to respond — or not — to Swaraj's specific charges against one of its named office-bearers will determine whether this episode intensifies further.