The CM is Bengal’s queen of cruelty, alleges Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury.
Sandeshkhali, a sleepy hamlet about 75 km from Kolkata and close to the Bangladesh border, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month. It has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader and his lieutenants. Visuals of hundreds of women waving wooden staff and boti (a curved blade fitted to a wooden base that is used by women in eastern India to peel, chop, dice and shred vegetables, fish and meat) to protest the exploitations have reached drawing rooms across the country.
The protests of the women forced West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose earlier last week to cut short his Kerala trip to rush to Sandeshkhali. After talking to the women there, Bose said: “What I saw was ghastly, shocking, shattering to my senses. I saw something which I should never have seen; I heard many things which I should never have heard. This is a shame for a civil society.”
Bose has also submitted a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs, accusing the law enforcers of working hand in glove with “rowdy elements” in Sandeshkhali.
While the Trinamool Congress, led by its feisty supremo Mamata Banerjee, is trying to downplay the revolt saying it is an isolated incident and was masterminded by the RSS, BJP and the CPM, her detractors and impartial observers say that Mamata’s rule has spawned many Sandeshkhalis in Bengal.
“Sandeshkhali has shown what we have been saying for years—that the Trinamool is made of criminals. The women from Sandeshkhali have spoken. People in Haroa, Minakha, Basanti, Bhangor, Gosaba, Canning and other places will speak up now. The women have especially come out to speak against the terror of the Trinamool-backed goons,” said Mohammad Salim, CPM state secretary.
“Where the ED and CBI had failed, our movements like the Insaaf Yatra helped people find their voice,” he claimed, even as the West Bengal Police arrested the former CPM MLA Nirapada Sardar, for allegedly fomenting the unrest. Suman Chattopadhyay, veteran journalist and political observer, agrees.
“There is no doubt about how politics in Bengal, especially of the ruling party, is now organised crime,” he said. “Each and every village of Bengal, with perhaps the exception of North Bengal where the BJP is strong, has its own Shahjahan. These Shahjahans are built up by the political leaders and grow unhindered since even the police are subservient to them. They are the law in their own lawless territories,” he added.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, senior MP and the state Pradesh Congress chief, who was stopped by the police from reaching Sandeshkhali, said: “The Chief Minister is Bengal’s queen of cruelty. The people of Bengal and all of India have seen you for who you are. From the panchayat to the state government to MPs, all are yours. Did you not know something of this kind was happening in Sandeshkhali? You have spoken out in favour of Shahjahan earlier.” Chowdhury criticised Banerjee for purportedly “communalising the issue”.
“The Chief Minister, instead of acknowledging that the incidents in Sandeshkhali are a matter of shame, is attempting to imbue them with a communal narrative by introducing aspects of Hindus and Muslims. We condemn such communal politics,” he asserted. Chowdhury’s remarks came in response to Banerjee’s allegations blaming the saffron camp of instigating unrest in the area.
Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty, who is close to the BJP, said: “This cannot go on. Nothing can be more heinous than this organised oppression of women. People must rise up against this oppression.”
Sandeshkhali hit the headlines when an Enforcement Directorate team and its CRPF escorts were beaten up when they went to raid the house of Shahjahan Sheikh, an influential Trinamool Congress leader who was suspected of being a cog in the multi-crore ration distribution scam in which Jyoti Priya Mallick, one of Mamata Banerjee’s closest supporters and the then Food Supplies Minister, is in jail.
In fact, Shahjahan Sheikh came under the ED lens after the investigative agency recovered a letter written by Mallick to his daughter and wife, which said that Sheikh and another associate Shankar Adhya should be contacted to get funds for his legal battle. The letter, being smuggled out of SSKM Hospital where Mallick was supposedly undergoing treatment while in ED custody, fell into the hands of the ED sleuths and triggered the ED raid on 5 January.
Shahjahan Sheikh went underground while his supporters bashed up the ED team. He has not been seen since, at least officially. West Bengal Police has been unable to find him while he has continued to ignore court and ED summons. His close associates claim that he is “very much in control of things” in the area.
After the ED incident, local women in large numbers came out in the open and alleged that Shahjahan and his men had been forcibly grabbing their lands for prawn cultivation, and had been torturing and sexually harassing them for several years. The women said that the absence of Shahjahan has given them the courage to speak about the torture they have been undergoing for several years.
They not only accused Shahjahan but also alleged that his close aides and other Trinamool leaders Uttam Sardar and Shibaprasad Hazra were involved in the abuse. “Party (Trinamool) men would survey every home and if there was any beautiful woman, primarily a young wife or a girl, they would take them to the party office. They would keep that woman there night after night till they were satisfied,” one of the several local women, who kept her face covered to hide her identity fearing attack by Shahjahan and his associates, alleged.
“One might be the husband, but he will not have his rights on her. One would have to let go of his wife. We are unable to live here. There is always a fear of being tortured or sexual molestation. We want safety. Most of our men have left the village and are working in other states,” alleged another while speaking to The Sunday Guardian and also refused to give her name.
The BJP, CPM and the Congress allege that the ruling Trinamool Congress and the pliant administration have been “giving protection” to Shahjahan and his men. Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, has claimed that Shahjahan is being framed by the Opposition parties who have joined hands keeping in mind the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, the police, which has failed to find Shahjahan Sheikh in 40-odd days, has erected impenetrable bamboo barricades on all roads that lead to the ghats from which ferries to the Sandeshkhali island operate. Sandeshkhali remains an island—cut off from the civilised world.