What happened in Sandeshkhali is beyond any Indian’s comprehension: Smriti Irani

PTI, Feb 26, 2024, 4:12 PM IST

What happened in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali is beyond the comprehension of any Indian, Union minister Smriti Irani said on Monday and questioned the Congress’ silence on alleged sexual abuse of women by TMC supporters in the village.

Congress people want to go there and talk but the ”shehzada”, who is still lost in the maze of politics, has not said a word on this matter, the Women and Child Development minister said in an apparent reference to senior party leader Rahul Gandhi.

Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district has been on the boil for a month with protests against local TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his supporters over allegations of land grabbing and sexually abusing local women.

Sheikh has been absconding since an Enforcement Directorate team that raided his house in connection with an alleged ration scam was attacked by a mob last month.

”Can you imagine that the women who supported Mamata ji for years are now being abducted from their homes and raped,” Irani said during a discussion on ‘Naari Shakti: Driving Mission Viksit Bharat’ at News9 Global Summit.

”What happened there is beyond the comprehension of any Indian. When violence erupted in West Bengal after the (assembly) elections, I had said that perhaps there is a feeling in the media that if it’s BJP members, it (they) can be easily eliminated…

”The perception is that because we belong to the BJP, if someone eliminates us in West Bengal, it should not matter because this is the political cost we bear for fighting,” she said.

”In Sandeshkhali, the people impacted are not those from the BJP but their own. They came for us first, now they are coming for their own,” she added.

The minister also questioned the silence of the Congress on the issue.

”The alarming thing is that even though politicians from the Congress have been killed, even Congress people want to go there and talk but the shehzada, who is still lost in the maze of politics, has not said a word on this matter,” Irani said.