Hours after a video went viral alleging that mass rape of women of Sandeshkhali was a fake drama hatched by the BJP, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday lambasted the saffron outfit for stooping to any level and using even the women to win votes.
Asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to shed “crocodile tears” on the mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali the Chief Minister on Sunday told a rally at Bolpur that “the BJP can stop to any level … they can even use the women for the sake of playing narrow politics … I will ask them not to use our mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali” in this dirty politics.
Earlier the TMC had released a video --- which was promptly rejected as fake by the BJP leadership --- that showed a local Mandal level leader telling someone that Bengal BJP president Suvendu Adhikari had told him to instigate some women to bring charges of rape against the TMC leaders. “He told me to instigate 3-4 women of the village to say that they were raped” by the men of TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan.
“No one would have imagined that a party would stoop so low to spread untruths like this … they will go to such level as to dishouour our mothers and sisters just to win votes … this heinous allegations were leveled against some leaders for the sake of votes only … and everything was done by splurging some money … and there some people are shedding crocodile’s tears,” Banerjee’s party to which the alleged video comes as an oasis in the midst of a desert said.
Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee too asked the top BJP leadership to tender an unconditional apology for what it had done. “The BJP owes an unconditional apology for what they have done or else the people of Bengal will never spare them … they will give them a befitting reply in the elections,” he said.
The BJP was however prompt to react. Even as the alleged saffron leader from Sandeshkhali went underground Adhikari said he was in his protection because he feared for his security. Adhikari challenged what he called a “fake and paid video” saying, “it is again a TMC’s new camera jerks … it is a fake video,” while other saffron leaders said “if 3-4 women had alleged mass rape then how could hundreds of come out on the road for days on end protesting against the land grab and mass molestation … by doing this the TMC is not only trying to save its leaders but also promoting the rape culture in Bengal.”
Meanwhile in a counter-revolution of sorts women paarticularly at Sandeshkhali – I block on Sunday came down in hordes demanding the release of their Bhaijan Sheikh Shahjahan saying he they would not vote if he was not released.
“Shahjahan bhai used to be a protector of the people and he helped many poor women in their daughters’ marriages but here the BJP has put him in jail by hatching a dirty conspiracy … we want his release immediately,” they said failing to answer however the hundreds of complaints that had been lodged against him on land grab and other crimes including accumulation of arms etc.
