Women have spoken out against the sexual exploitation by Trinamool leaders in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali. The Calcutta High Court and women’s commissions too have taken note. How did this systemic sexual and socio-economic exploitation start, and why didn’t people speak out earlier?
“Women here cannot live in safety. We women fear going out. We want safety,” Sandeshkhali resident Kanika Das told Aaj Tak Bangla.
Kanika Das is among the women who have broken years of silence and narrated the horrifying incidents of systemic gang rape and sexual exploitation in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali.
They are narrating stories of horrific sexual exploitation by Trinamool leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his henchmen, and are seeking justice. They allege that women were chosen and taken to the Trinamool party office, confined there night after night, and released only after the Trinamool members were “satisfied”. The videos of their allegations have gone viral now.
What enabled the women to break the cycle of silence was the fleeing of Sheikh Shahjahan after the Enforcement Directorate’s raid.
This is an area of the Sunderbans where poverty is a dominating factor and one of the key reasons behind the years of silence. Then there is unchecked power wielded by anti-social elements who gained political centrestage due to the Trinamool regime.
WOMEN DARED NOT COMPLAIN AGAINST SHEIKH SHAHJAHAN
Most women couldn’t muster the courage to speak out. Complaints to the police, allegedly, fell on deaf ears.
The few who dared to protest recently faced the consequences.
The women who spoke up against Sheikh Shahjahan were attacked by Sheikh Shahjahan and his men, Shibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
“The miscreants, accompanied by the police, about 20-30 of them, came to my home at 3 am. They kicked hard on my door, broke my window, pulled me by my hand and hair and even snatched away my baby daughter and threw her away,” added Kanika Das, recollecting an incident on February 10.
“Sheikh Shahjahan and his gang established a ‘reign of terror’ where the dignity and modesty of women from the SC and ST communities have been repeatedly violated,” Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s leader of opposition in West Bengal and Nandigram MLA wrote on X, on February 11, reacting to the chain of events in Sandeshkhali.
Reports and videos of the systemic sexual exploitation of young married Hindu women of Sandeshkhali have come out now. The opposition BJP in West Bengal is carrying out protests and calling for action against Trinamool leaders.
“Bengal has turned into a state run by a government of rapists, by rapists, for rapists,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said on Wednesday.
Responding to the BJP leader’s allegations, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh accused the BJP of trying to “vitiate the atmosphere”.
“The allegations (of gangrape) are baseless. The BJP is trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the area. They want to disturb the law and order situation,” Ghosh said on February 14.
CRUCIAL QUESTIONS ON SANDESHKHALI
The Calcutta High Court, too, took suo moto cognisance of the Sandeshkhali incident on Tuesday (February 13). It asked the Mamta Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government to submit a report by February 20 on allegations of sexual assault on women “at gunpoint” and transfer of tribal land at Sandeshkhali.
“Mamata Banerjee is known for the genocide of Hindus. She will now allow her men to pick young married Hindu women to be raped in the TMC office. The question Mamata Banerjee has to answer is – where is Sheikh Shahjahan?,” Union minister Smriti Irani said on the reports of sexual violence in Sandeshkhali, on Monday (February 12).
Trinamool Congress didn’t deny the allegations of sexual exploitation of women, but they attacked Smriti Irani for “trying to foment trouble in Bengal”.
Bengal ministers Chandrima Bhattacharya and Birbaha Hansda said “rape has no religion”, but didn’t refute the allegations of sexual assault levelled against Sheikh Shahjahan, a Trinamool Zila Parishad member, and his henchmen.
Other than sexual harassment and exploitation, there are allegations of systemic land-grabbing and socio-economic exploitation against Trinamool’s Sheikh Shahjahan and his henchmen.