Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met a group of women from Sandeshkhali, where allegations of sexual abuse against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides have been levelled.
PM Modi met them following a public rally at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district where Sandeshkhali is located.
“After the public meeting, the Prime Minister met a few women from Sandeshkhali. The women spoke about the atrocities that were perpetrated on them,” BJP state general secretary Agnimitra Paul told PTI.
The riverine island of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district has been on the boil over allegations of sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing by suspended TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his cohorts.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi flagged off the underwater Kolkata metro and also took a ride in it while interacting with several schoolgoers.
He then addressed a women’s rally in Barasat. He said, “Leaders of the INDIA alliance are now saying that I talk against dynastic politics because I have no family. They want to know where my family is. These dynasts should come here. This is Modi ka parivar,” he said, doubling down on the BJP’s ‘Modi ka Parivar’ campaign to counter RJD patriarch Lalu Yadav’s “Modi has no family” jab.
Pointing at the women in the crowd, he said the mothers, sisters and daughters shield him from every difficulty. “For me, the mothers and sisters of Bengal rise like Goddess Durga,” the Prime Minister said.
Bengal’s women power, he said, has given a direction to the country. “But, in this land, under the Trinamool rule, women have suffered atrocities. Trinamool has committed a grave sin. What happened in Sandeshkhali would make anyone ashamed. But the Trinamool government doesn’t care about your pain. It is using all its might to protect the oppressor of Bengali women, but they have faced jolts in the high court and in the Supreme Court.”
Also Read: Sandeshkhali unrest: TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh sent to 10-day police custody
The Trinamool government, he said, trusts leaders who commit atrocities, but not the women of the state. “Women from Bengal and the country are outraged. This storm won’t remain restricted to Sandeshkhali. It will reach the whole Bengal. Bengal’s Nari Shakti has set out to destroy Trinamool’s Mafia rule. Sandeshkhali has shown that only BJP is the voice of the women of Bengal. The Trinamool government, under the pressure of appeasement and extortionists, will never help women,” he said.
Calling the Mamata Banerjee government “anti-women”, he said several welfare schemes launched for women have not been implemented in Bengal.
Also Read: Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan, main accused in Sandeshkhali case, arrested
The PM’s barbs at the Mamata Banerjee government come against the backdrop of the tug of war between Bengal police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over Shahjahan Sheikh’s custody. The Calcutta High Court has asked Bengal police to hand over Shahjahan to the central agency. The Mamata Banerjee government has challenged the ruling in the Supreme Court and refused to hand him over till the court takes a decision.
Shahjahan was earlier arrested after being on the run for 55 days. While the Trinamool has expelled him, the BJP says people of Sandeshkhali, who have accused him and his aides of sexual harassment, land grab and extortion, will get no justice till central agency grills him.
(With inputs from PTI)
