Mamata Banerjee walked 2km in Calcutta in the company of around 200 women from Sandeshkhali on Thursday, and declared Bengal the safest place for women.
A day earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had blamed Trinamul for the plight of the “mothers and sisters” of Sandeshkhali.
“Even yesterday, BJP leaders said that women are tortured the most in Bengal. I can challenge them that Bengal is the place where women are safest,” Mamata said.
“There is no justice for women in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan — just as there wasn’t any justice in Hathras.”
At a rally in Barasat on Wednesday, Modi had attacked Mamata’s government over Sandeshkhali where local Trinamul leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides have been accused of land-grabbing, torturing villagers and sexually harassing women.
The Prime Minister had asserted that the Sandeshkhali “storm” would sweep across Bengal and end “Trinamul’s rule of terror”.
Mamata walked from College Square to the Dorina Crossing along with Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, with around 5,000 women participating in the march, organised by Trinamul Mahila Congress on the eve of International Women’s Day.
Of the about 200 women from Sandeshkhali, five accompanied Mamata onto the stage at Dorina Crossing, from where the chief minister spoke for over 30 minutes.
“We had two bighas of land that they (Trinamul leaders) grabbed and converted into bheris (fish farming ponds). Now the government has returned the land to us. Our Didi punished her party functionaries who tortured us,” Nityabala Sardar, a woman from Sandeshkhali, said from the stage.
Mamata tore into Modi’s allegation that the Trinamul leadership was trying to shield the accused. Although he did not name anyone, Modi was clearly alluding to arrested local Trinamul leaders Sheikh Shahjahan, Shib Prasad Hazra, Uttam Sardar and Ajit Maity.
“There may have been some incidents at some places outside our knowledge,” Mamata said. “If we get to know something, we take action. I don’t hesitate to arrest even Trinamul workers.”
Mamata, while accepting that “some incidents” had taken place in Sandeshkhali, reminded the BJP of its leaders’ silence when crimes against women occurred in states ruled by their party.
“When women were paraded naked in Manipur, where were the BJP leaders? When Hathras was burning, where were they?” she said, asking why Modi was “angry only about Bengal”.
“Pintu babu ko itna gussa kyun aata hai Bengal pe, Bengal ke betiyon pe (Why is Pintu Babu angry only about Bengal and Bengal’s daughters),” she said.
“In Hindi, ‘sandesh’ means message. Many have given fake sandesh (messages) on Sandeshkhali. They talk about ‘nari samman’ (women’s honour) but wrestler Sakshi (Malik) is proof of what they actually believe in.”
Mamata went on to refer to “a BJP MP who assaulted women wrestlers” and occupied a high post as a sports administrator. “Aren’t you ashamed of engaging in such activities and then talking about nari samman?” she asked.
Mamata thanked the women from Sandeshkhali for their participation in her rally.
Sabitri Sardar, among the five on the dais with Mamata and other senior Trinamul leaders, thanked the chief minister and her government for acting against the offenders. “Whatever problems happened in our areas have been resolved as Didi took action so swiftly,” said the 39-year-old woman.
“The administration has returned land to those whose properties were grabbed. Didi has taken strict action and I want to thank her for the role she played."
