Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the Sandeshkhali “storm” would sweep across Bengal and ensure an end to the Trinamul Congress’s “rule of terror”.
The forecast and his repeated stress on the plight of “the mothers and sisters” of Sandeshkhali during a rally in Barasat made it clear that the BJP was banking heavily on the allegations of atrocities to defeat Trinamul in the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal.
“The women of Bengal and also the entire country are angry with what happened to the mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali. The anger of Nari Shakti (power of women) will not be confined to Sandeshkhali,” Modi told a gathering of over 20,000 women. Barasat is the district headquarters of North 24-Parganas, where Sandeshkhali is located.
“Anyone will hang his or her head in shame after knowing what happened to the mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali. Sampurna Bangla te Sandeshkhali-r jhawr uthbe (The storm blowing over Sandeshkhali will sweep across Bengal),” the Prime Minister said to loud applause.
In his 38-minute address, Modi spent over six minutes on Sandeshkhali, mounting a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee government. The address was broadcast live in 19,000 places across the country as the programme in Barasat marked the conclusion of the BJP Mahila Morcha’s three-day-long Shakti Vandan Karyakram to promote women’s empowerment.
“The women here (in Bengal) have shaped the country’s direction, figures like Maa Sarada, Rani Rashmoni, Matangini Hazra.... However, on this land, Trinamul has committed a grave sin against women. They have committed heinous crimes against mothers and sisters,” the Prime Minister said. “I can see that the women of Bengal will put an end to the TMC’s mafia raj,” he added.
Sandeshkhali — one of the 102 islands in the Sunderbans — witnessed protests by locals for about 54 days against the atrocities allegedly perpetrated by now-suspended Trinamul strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides.
As media teams and Opposition parties reached the island, hundreds of women came out of their homes to accuse Shahjahan and his cronies of land-grab and committing atrocities and sexual assault.
The protests spread to dozens of villages in different pockets of Sandeshkhali I and II blocks, putting the Trinamul dispensation in unprecedented discomfort.
During his address, Modi lambasted the Trinamul government over its decision to move the Supreme Court to challenge a high court order that asked the CBI to carry out the probe and take custody of Shahjahan.
“While the oppressed mothers and sisters are fighting for justice, the Trinamul government is using its power to protect the perpetrators who committed crimes against women. But it received a rap, first from the high court and then from the Supreme Court,” said Modi.
He made it a point to mention that most of the victims in Sandeshkhali were from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
“Trinamul has been torturing the poor, Dalit, deprived and tribal people,” said the Prime Minister, adding that the party’s government would never take care of the women of Bengal while the BJP-run Centre had been instrumental in ensuring capital punishment for those committing crimes like rape.
Multiple sources in the BJP said the party would strive to corner the Mamata government on the issue of atrocities on women.
Trinamul has always considered women voters as its core support base because of Mamata’s appeal among women and the state government’s welfare schemes targeting them.
“Modiji has made it clear that the party would take on Trinamul over its anti-women face in Sandeshkhali. We have already chalked out programmes in Sandeshkhali to keep the issue alive and spread the protest across Bengal,” said a BJP leader.
