Two tribal women were allegedly “stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly” in West Bengal’s Malda a few days ago while police remained a “mute spectator,” the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged targeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee for failing to provide security to women in the State.
The ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in its response said that the BJP was needlessly politicising the issue and the women were caught stealing, which prompted outraged by the locals. BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya today took to Twitter to post a purported video, that has surfaced on social media, of the incident, which he claimed took place on July 19 in Pakua Hat, a weekly market, of Bamangola Police Station in Malda.
The ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in its response said that the BJP was needlessly politicising the issue.
Women and Child Development minister of West Bengal Shashi Panja said, “There is absolutely no need to politicise the Malda incident. It was a case of theft, where the two ladies tried to steal something from the market. A group of women tried to take law and order into their hands and started beating them. However, the police reached the spot. A case has been registered and police are investigating the matter.”
“It has nothing to do with politics though we have taken suo motu of the incident,” Panja said.
“The horror continues in West Bengal. Two Tribal women were stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while police remained a mute spectator in Pakua Hat area of Bamangola Police Station, Malda,” Malviya tweeted.
“The horrific incident took place on the morning of 19th July. The women belonged to socially marginalised community and had a frenzied mob baying for her blood…,” Malviya who is the party’s BJP in-charge of West Bengal said.
Attacking the state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Malviya posted, “It had all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart and she, instead of merely outraging, could have acted, since she is also the Home Minister of Bengal…” Malviya said.
Malviya alleged that the West Bengal chief minister “chose to do nothing.”
“Neither did she condemn the barbarity nor did she express pain and anguish because it would have exposed her own failing as a Chief Minister. But a day after, she shed copious tears and screamed blue murder, because it was politically expedient…” the BJP leader tweeted.
Mamata Banerjee had launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led government over the incident in violence-hit Manipur, where BJP is in power, and where two women being paraded nude and a video of the May 4 incident went viral on social media triggering nationwide outrage and political leaders condemning it. Opposition leaders also raised the issue in the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also targeted the West Bengal government’s “lawlessness” over the Malda incident.
CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat said, “Malda’s incident should not be compared with that of Manipur. Atrocities against women in any part of the country are condemnable…West Bengal’s incident where ‘Adivasi’ women can be seen beating other ‘Adivasi’ women is condemnable…It is just an example of West Bengal government’s lawlessness…”
Meanwhile, on Friday, a BJP worker from Howrah’s South Panchala in West Bengal claimed that during the recent panchayat polls in the state, she was dragged outside the polling booth and her clothes were ripped off. The woman said that she has filed an FIR in the incident.