New Delhi, July 1 -- A West Bengal minister's remark that any "minor" incidents in Bengal lead to a huge cry seems to have been overblown by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has claimed that the latter was referring to the Kolkata gangrape case. Rebutting the allegations, the minister clarified that his remarks were "misunderstood" and "misquoted."

West Bengal Irrigation Minister Manas Bhunia, who was addressing a doctors' conference in Kolkata recently, said in his speech: "A minor incident happened, and there is a lot of commotion around it. Has the chief minister ever suppressed any incident? During the RG Kar hospital episode, even the CBI could not proceed further after a police investigation - that's how active she was." The state...