Sandeshkhali Unrest: Delegation, Led by NCW Chief, to Investigate Unrest in Sandeshkhali Today

A delegation headed by Rekha Sharma, the chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), departed for Kolkata on Monday in anticipation of her visit to Sandeshkhali. For more than ten days, the Sandeshkhali area of West Bengal has been engulfed in widespread turmoil as female demonstrators demand justice for what they believe to be atrocities carried out by TMC leader Sheikh Shajahan and his associates.

The NCW chief said “A lot of injustice has been done to women, and I want to go to every street and talk to all the women and assure them that I stand with them so that they can have the courage to come forward and speak up.”
During her visit, she will also meet the Governor of West Bengal and said she would meet President Droupadi Murmu after completing her Sandeshkhali visit, she added.

“Very disturbing news is coming from Sandeshkhali. My member went to investigate but could not meet many victims due to the police. So I am going. I have spoken to the victims, and I want them to get full justice. So I will go myself. I will meet the Directorate General of Police and the local police there. A lot of injustice has been done to women, and I want to go to every street and talk to all the women and assure them that I stand with them so that they can have the courage to come forward and speak up. I will also take action and meet the governor. When I come back, I would like to meet the President,” National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma told.

Shehzad Poonawalla, the national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), took aim at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday regarding the condition of women in the Sandeshkhali region of the state, stating, “Today there might be Mamata Banerjee in the government of West Bengal but there is no Mamata left in this government.” Poonawalla expressed her disapproval of Chief Minister Banerjee for her inconsiderate remarks regarding Sandeshkhali.

“The manner in which the insulting, obnoxious, and very disheartening statements are coming from Mamta Banerjee one after the other on Sandeshkhali. First, she stood up in assembly and gave a clean shit to Shahjahan Sheikh, and she did victim shaming and victim blaming, saying that Sandeshkhali was the RSS’s bunker, and now she has come out and said it was a fabricated incident,” he said.

“No FIR is being filed and she has said whatever has been taken will be returned back. How will you return the ‘izzat and abru’ of the women? The Anusuchit Jati women who have been brutalized and sexually assaulted by Shahjahan Sheikh and his henchmen. And how will there be any kind of nyay (justice) if the police acts in a partisan manner? It does not stop Shahjahan Sheikh. It stops the karyakartas of BJP, Sukanta Majumdar and others. It brutalizes them,” he said.

In reference to the BJP delegation, Poonawalla asked, “What is the truth that you’re trying to hide, madam?” before preventing them from visiting Sandeshkhali. “And this is the approach, not just in this case but in case after case, where the women are victim shamed,” the BJP spokesman said, recounting earlier incidents in which the victims had been mistreated. He said, “Goons who are engaging in this kind of systematic sexual exploitation are being protected by Mamata Banerjee today, whether it’s the Park Street rape case… and the TMC Talibani mindset and culture.”

“The question is not just of Mamata Banerjee today. The question is that Rahul Gandhi and Congress party one section of Congress is protesting but Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vardha are silent. They go across the country on all issues of women’s empowerment, women’s rights. But why are they not speaking now? And the entire INDIA alliance, which talks about Mahila Adikar (women, right), is today eloquently silent and quiet,” he said.

According to reports, women in Sandeshkhali village have been sexually assaulted. Today, February 19, the Supreme Court will hear a plea seeking to transfer the investigation and trial to a location outside of West Bengal. Justices Augustine George Masih and BV Nagarathna will sit on the bench to hear the case. The Supreme Court was asked to transfer the investigation and trial from West Bengal to another location in relation to the alleged sexual assault of women in Sandeshkhali village, and Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava has filed the plea in support of this request.