The situation going on in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal seems to have been heavily politicised, but it is important to learn what is happening there and affecting the common people of the place.
Recently, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a documentary about Sandeshkhali with women from there sharing their struggles and accusing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of hiding the truth.
To which TMC hit back that the BJP is just making up the allegations in an attempt to attack the chief minister Mamata Banerjee and gain voters there before the Lok Sabha election. In the midst of all this, the main issue is not getting enough attention which is what is the actual reality of the place and what the people from there are saying.
What Is Happening In Sandeshkhali?
On January 5, the news of Enforcement Directorate officials being attacked and beaten by local Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh brought the little-known village called Sandeshkhali into the limelight. The ED officials had reportedly gone to raid Shahjahan’s residence during their investigation of a ration distribution scam in the region.
The village located in the Basirhat subdivision of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district was suddenly getting attention and with that not just the news about the TMC leader and aides Sibaprasad alias Sibu Hazra, and Uttam Sardar all of whom are absconding since the incident but also women revealing the inhumane and horrifying conditions they’ve been living in for years.
Since February 8, 2024, protests have been taking place in Sandeshkhali by hundreds of women claiming that the TMC leaders and their cronies have been spreading a ‘reign of terror’ on the people there including land grabbing, sexual harassment and sexual assault toward local women.
The women have been setting fire to properties owned by TMC leaders and speaking with the media about the conditions they had to go through. According to The Wire, one woman said “They brought me into the party office, where a group of people were drinking. For the next one and half days, two of them tortured me in the party office itself.
I was told that my husband would not ‘take me back’ after this and so I should stay on with the men in the room – that they would give me a government job eventually. They said they would place my husband’s severed head on my palms if I complained about what they had done to me.”
She also stated how “Any woman found attractive by a TMC leader would be brought to the party office and leaders would take turns to rape her. Your caste or religion won’t matter.”
One woman revealed how the women of Sandeshkhali had sent a mass petition to CM Mamata Banerjee in 2021 but nothing changed. She said “For the past few years, we’re robbed of our dignity. When the men in our families protested, TMC cadres and police mercilessly beat them up.
Farmland was captured without farmers’ consent and turned into fisheries. No one got any compensation. Even allowances and money for working for government projects were forcibly taken away from us.”
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In a report by journalist Joydeep Sarkar for The Wire, he wrote how taking photos of the area with a mobile phone is strictly forbidden especially of the marketplace and if any are to be taken then approval from local youths is required. One of the locals said to him “Dada (Shahjahan) is like our god. We won’t tolerate any harm to him.”
As per a Newsclick report, Tapai Sardar, 35, speaking with CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said “We are at the receiving end of the state government’s ire for speaking up against the TMC goons. Our threat level is very high. Didi, we don’t know what will happen to us later, but we will see to that that history sheeter TMC leaders SK Shahjahan, Uttam Sardar and Shibu Hazra do not get bail.”
Karat, accompanied by a team of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) were initially stopped by the West Bengal police who claimed the area was under Section 144, which wasn’t true since reportedly the Calcutta High Court had dismissed the decision to apply prohibitory orders in the police station of the area.
Eventually, after two hours they managed to get their way in and were met by women telling tales of torture and agony, with one woman in Natunpara speaking on how her school-going daughter was allegedly “trafficked” by TMC leaders and their goons and hasn’t been home in six years.
Other women commented “We want the death penalty for our torturers,” and how the land that had been given to them during the Left Front regime (before 2011) was “forcibly taken over by TMC men, who used to come in hundreds wearing helmets and riding motorcycles and would threaten people of the area with dire consequences if they opened their mouths”.
Sandeshkhali resident Kanika Das was quoted by Aaj Tak Bangla saying “Women here cannot live in safety. We women fear going out. We want safety” and how “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.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Newsclick, The Indian Express, The Wire
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: sandeshkhali, sandeshkhali protest, sandeshkhali news, sandeshkhali violence, sandeshkhali women, sandeshkhali land grab, sandeshkhali incident, sandeshkhali west bengal, west bengal, tmc, bjp, shahjahan sheikh, shahjahan sheikh tmc, shahjahan sheikh sandeshkhali, shahjahan sheikh west bengal
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