'Mamata Will Have to Pay': Protests Intensify in Bengal's Sandeshkhali as 'Khalistani Jibe' at Cop Adds to Unrest | Updates

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma believes that Sandeshkhali would be the “downfall” of his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress. The state BJP leaders have already been accusing the police and the administration of working hand in glove with the perpetrators as they exploited women and usurped their lands.

West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali has been on the boil for weeks over allegations of sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing by local Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders.

National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Monday said 18 complaints had been received from women in Sandeshkhali, of which two are complaints of rape. On February 12, Union Minister Smriti Irani alleged that “Hindu” women from lower castes had been “raped” regularly by TMC workers. The state police ruled out a communal angle in the violence.

What is Happening in Sandeshkhali?

• For almost a month, Sandeshkhali, a village in West Bengal, has been witnessing a political storm amid allegations of sexual harassment by numerous women against a local Trinamool Congress workers.

• After the Enforcement Directorate raided TMC’s Shahjahan Sheikh house in Sandeshkhali, local women came out in large numbers and alleged that Shajahan and his men forcibly grabbed their land for prawn cultivation, torturing and sexually harassing them for several years.

• Women in Sandeshkhali have been staging protests for the past several week in response to purported atrocities. This prompted the BJP to send a mission to look into the matter. When a team of BJP leaders went to the area, they were reportedly stopped by the Mamata Banerjee government, triggering further protests and clashes.

• “The condition of Bengal is very bad, the journalists there who are trying to show the reality are also being arrested. The incident that happened in Sandeshkhali, one cannot even imagine about it,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

• Leader of opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday described as “horrific” and “emblematic of anarchy” the situation in Sandeshkhali after visiting the trouble-torn area following the intervention of the Calcutta high court.

• Fugitive TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan is singularly responsible for unrest in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali, and law and order there “can’t be restored” so long as he is on the run, Calcutta high court chief justice T S Sivagnanam said on Tuesday, adding that Mamata Banerjee govt “can’t be supporting him”. “One person is holding entire population to ransom and defying law…Let him appear before court and submit that allegations (levelled by ED) are baseless,” CJ said.

• Two Trinamool Congress MPs have welcomed West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose’s move to open the doors of the Raj Bhavan for the victimised women of trouble-torn region who feel unsafe in their homes. Contai MP Sisir Adhikari and his younger son Tamluk MP Dibyendu have praised the governor for realising the situation of the tormented women of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district.

• A Sikh IPS officer, who was deputed to prevent senior West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari from visiting restive Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, on Tuesday slammed saffron party activists for allegedly dubbing him as a ‘Khalistani‘.

• BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul, accompanying Adhikari, claimed that the police officer wasn’t fulfilling his duties, but dismissed the allegation that BJP supporters called him a ‘Khalistani’.

• National Commission for Schedule Tribes has issued a notice on Sandeshkhali. The panel will send a team to the area tomorrow, February 22.

• The Bharatiya Janata Party held a press conference on Wednesday morning, where former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that “Mamata Banerjee will have to pay” for the Sandeskhali incident. He further questioned why other parties were silent on the issue.

• “Sandeshkhali issue is serious…What is emerging about the blatant assault, humiliating treatment and sexual assault of women is a shame on our society and democracy. Mamata Banerjee is still defending it. Why? One journalist was also arrested. What does Mamata Banerjee want to hide, and why? To save her political reputation, a woman CM is risking the honour of women. Why? Where has her conscience died? Why are the parties silent? I heard that a woman leader of the CPI(M) visited the area but the CPI(M) has not opposed it (the incident), it has not made a public comment. Rahul Gandhi is silent,” Prasad said.

• The National Human Rights Commission has sent a notice to the West Bengal government and the state’s police chief over reports alleging “unabated human rights violations” due to continued violence in restive Sandeshkhali, officials said on Wednesday. Considering the gravity of the matter, the Commission has also decided to “depute its team to ascertain facts by an on-spot inquiry” into the incidents of “violence of human rights” in Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, they said.