West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for tensions in Sandeshkhali, and claimed that Sheikh Shahjahan, the absconding Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief on the centre of a number of allegations that vary from cash laundering to harassment, was being focused.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. (ANI)
The TMC chief additionally stated her authorities was investigating the complaints which have emerged from the violence-hit area, asserting she has “never tolerated injustice in her life”.
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Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district, has been witnessing tensions since January 7, when an Enforcement Directorate workforce that arrived to raid Shahjahan’s home in reference to a money-laundering case was attacked by a mob. Even as Shahjahan has evaded arrest, since February 7, villagers led by native girls have held violent protests towards alleged harassment and exploitation by native TMC leaders.
Speaking within the state meeting on Thursday, Banerjee stated the RSS — the ideological fountainhead of the BJP — has a “shelter in Sandeshkhali.”
“Among the places prone to riots in West Bengal, Sandeshkhali is one. We strongly handled (law and order) during the Saraswati Puja (on Wednesday), otherwise I doubt whether we could have at all held the puja. There was some planning that was going on,” she claimed.
The CM alleged that a few of 17 accused arrested by the police for fomenting violence within the space had been BJP staff. “Those who were posing before the cameras wearing masks have been held and outsiders were brought in to spread tension in the area. The target was Sheikh Shahjahan. ED first entered the area targeting him and after ousting everyone they created a rift between the local tribal and minority populations,” she stated.
RSS spokesperson Ajay Kumar Nandi denied Banerjee’s fees. “The RSS cannot be her political opponent. Her appeasement politics has prompted Hindus to launch a protest because they now find their backs against the wall. RSS has nothing to do with this… [it] is engaged in social work and has nothing to do with politics,” Nandi stated.
Banerjee stated whereas some individuals could have grievances, her authorities would look into it, and pointed to visits to Sandeshkhali by the state girls’s fee and a 10-member police workforce shaped to probe allegations. “You know I have never tolerated injustice in my life. It was I who took the initiative to send a delegation of state women’s commission, a team of the state administration and 17 people have been arrested… A police team is visiting door-to-door to find out if there are any grievances. Once they file a report, we will work on it. But first, I need to know the facts,” Banerjee stated.
The BJP, nevertheless, attacked Banerjee over her “cruel” and “anti-women” feedback. “Banerjee has made some shameful statements in the state assembly. She questioned why village women were covering their faces while narrating the sexual harassment and threatened to arrest them. She said Sandeshkhali is a bunker of RSS. What do you mean by this Mamata ji? Why have you become so cruel, so ugly and so anti-women?” senior BJP chief Ravi Shankar Prasad stated in a press convention in Delhi.
Late on Wednesday, the West Bengal police rejected allegations of sexual harassment, saying misinformation was being unfold to mislead individuals. “No allegations about rape have so far been received during the enquiries since conducted by the state women’s commission, an all-women 10-member fact-finding team led by DIG of CID and the district police,” police stated in a press release.
The National Commission for Women, which additionally has a workforce in Sandeshkhali, nevertheless, stated victims had been being threatened towards reporting situations of sexual and bodily harassment. A workforce from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, led by chairman Arun Halder, additionally visited the violence-hit village on Thursday.
BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari was, nevertheless, prevented from visiting the realm by the police, after which he staged a sit-in demonstration in Damakhali. “The Calcutta high court had on Tuesday set aside prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC clamped in Sandeshkhali. Despite that I was stopped. I will move the high court on Friday. We have video and audio clippings. I hope the court will consider,” the chief of opposition stated.
To ensure, contemporary prohibitory orders had been clamped in 19 pockets throughout seven villages of Sandeshkhali-II block hours after the HC order on Tuesday.
BJP president JP Nadda has arrange a six-member committee led by Union minister Annapurna Devi which can go to Sandeshkhali on Friday. The panel has been requested to gather info from the realm and filed a report back to Nadda on the earliest.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
