`I felt just like Draupadi’

Ansari displays the scratch marks on her collar-bone and the swelling on her right shoulder which she received during Thursday’s attack by Sena corporators in the corporation premises. “I was unable to talk yesterday. But I thank the Lord. They would have killed me if I was not taken out of the corporation in time,” she says. “This was a new one…” she adds, holding up the torn remains of her sari.

Opening the civic Yearbook, she singles out pictures of her attackers: Vishakha Raut, Surekha Godambe, Neeta Naik, Suchita Chandarkar, Neeta Naik, Anita Bagwe, Sudha Meher, Nilima Rajopadhye and Anthony Britto. Pointing to K B Jamsandekar, she says: “This fellow was laughing throughout while I was being stripped. He had spread his hands out, blocking those rushing to rescue me. All along, he sported a wicked grin. The entire House was watching the tamasha.”

To the charge that she had stripped herself, Ansari says: “No woman will strip herself in public, not even a prostitute. I pleaded with them not to do it but they were determined. I felt like Draupadi. In her case, the men did it. Sadly here it was the women.”

Recalling the assault on Thursday, Ansari says she had merely stood up to protest when Opposition leader K A Bastiwalla’s point of order was being rejected by Mayor Hareshwar Patil. “The Sena corporators were shouting against allowing it. I said for the past three days what are you people doing in Mantralaya?” They retorted, `Deshdrohi Abu Asim Azmi ko nikalna hai.‘ Then I said, `If we are deshdrohis, then you are worse because you were the first to fight and instigate riots.’ Probably, this made them fly into a rage.”

Thereafter, tempers rose and both sides got into a heated verbal exchange. “Vishakha Raut leading a group of women, rushed menacingly towards me screaming, “We shall teach her a lesson. Strip her. Strip her.” Ansari says she was pained that even the mayor did not care to summon the security guards. “It hurts,” she adds.

She also denies having used expletives while referring to Sena chief Bal Thackeray. “Is anyone mad to take Thackeray’s name? They would have gathered a huge crowd below my residence and chopped me.” Ansari even speaks of help from an unexpected quarter. “If I had abused Thackeray, would the BJP’s Sardar Tara Singh rush to my aid? Or even the Congress corporators? Poor fellow, he was pushed and his pagdi pulled off.”

Saying that she has always championed good causes in the corporation, mainly on education issues, Ansari points out that she is a member of the civic Education Committee and was a teacher in a municipal school for 25 years before that.“I always have my sari pallu wrapped around me. Not like these women who do not speak but are ever-ready to fight. They dress up for a fashion show, gossip in the corridors, and behave in the cheapest manner.”

Ansari’s family, in a sombre mood after the incident, reacts to the incident with disbelief. Her daughter Roma, a Mithibai College student, a final year (Sociology) student, says: “I felt very sad, awkward when I heard of it. I am averse to politics because it can get very dirty. They should rather have clarified issues in verbal manner. We are feeling insecure. They may try to take revenge.” Faheem, Ansari’s Std X son from St Joseph High School, Juhu, remarks shyly: “They should not have done that.” Her businessman-husband Zaheed was laconic. “We read the news reports. Our reaction is self-explanatory.”

Ansari says she is not cowered by the attack but is instead emboldened by it. “If all women get scared of these so-called dictators, they will never progress. I shall be back in the House on Tuesday and face them boldly.”