In the run up to the 2024 polls, why the Mamata Banerjee seems has been left worried and leaking wounds in more ways than one?
Sandeshkhali is a remote island in the Sunderbans. In 1970s, Sandeshkhali came to be known as a site for shooting of famous Bengali/Hindi film 'Amanush' starring legendary Uttam Kumar and noted actress Sharmila Tagore.
Why and how the Sandeshkhali crisis has the potential of becoming Singur-Nandigram part 2 in West Bengal politics ? And if that happens, Bengal should prepare for yet another political shake up.
Along with 'Atrocities' against women; Land grabbing by those with Trinamool connections is emerging a major issue.
The common faceless people are gradually speaking out against 'dominance politics' of those in power and moreover there is a new angle.
Now. locals say they could not vote since 2013 in any poll including Lok Sabha and assembly elections as their cards used to be taken by political goondas and agents. Sandeshkhali falls under Basirhat parliamentary constituency.
Lok Sabha MP and actor Nusrat Jahan now claims she has "genuinely served the people" in her constituency and followed her party's guidelines.
The Trinamool MP from Basirhat said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking 'all necessary steps' (sic) to ensure peace on the island that has made headlines after allegations of land grab, extortion and harassment by local Trinamool leaders.
"I act in accordance with the guidelines of my party.. and I believe we must have faith in the state govt and administration,what is wrong shall always be condemned. We must refrain from targeting each other and come together to help create peace and not commotion.
People's security and welfare is our top priority. Rest who says what about whom does not matter. Like I said before. I'd repeat again "STOP POLITICISING" (sic)," she said.
But her statement is hardly taken in seriously as they appear plain damage control exercise.
"Whatever happened to Hindus in West Bengal before Independence continues to this day. Only the names of the places have changed; nothing else has altered in the circumstances. In Bengal, Noakhali episodes involving such heinous historical events are still repeated from time to time. In the present day, Noakhali is in Bangladesh, a Hindu graveyard.
The country’s political temperature has also begun to rise because of the exposure of sad episodes in Sandeshkhali, 24 North Parganas district, around 75 kilometres from Kolkata. The sort of discoveries that are being made, the way Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) administration is behaving and encouraging the criminals, it must be argued that Noakhali before 1947 and today’s Sandeshkhali are identical.
The tragedies of modern-day Sandeshkhali are comparable to the horrors of 1946 Noakhali, says an article in 'News18.com'.
An under-construction poultry farm that arrested Trinamool leader Shib Prasad Hazra had set up in Sandeshkhali by allegedly grabbing agricultural land
Even a grossly anti-BJP and pro-Trinamool newspaper 'The Telegraph' now sings a different song about Sandheshkhali and 'goondaism' of Mamata Banerjee's party that once vowed to protect the interests of Ma, Maati and Manush.
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“I belong to a marginal family and have been a farmer for the past 40 years. I still have the land on paper, but it is no longer mine as it became the property of Shibu (arrested Trinamul leader Shib Prasad Hazra),” Mondal said. (as reported by The Telegraph)
“I was not ready to hand over my small land parcel, but I was not able to bear the pain of being beaten black and blue by the kodaleyr bnaat (wooden spade handle), wielding which he and his cronies ran their writ in our area,” Mondal added.
Such stories of land grab have tumbled out in the open over the last fortnight following protests against some local Trinamul leaders who had allegedly created a reign of terror by forcibly taking away land parcels and committing crimes against women.
Sandeshkhali became the epicentre of a political controversy in the state after an attack on Enforcement Directorate officials during a raid at the home of Trinamul strongman Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with a PDS “scam”.
Although Sandeshkhali is a Hindu-dominated area with 36.45 per cent Scheduled Castes and 24.55 per cent Scheduled Tribes, many among the few Muslim residents of the island virtually echoed their Hindu brethren.
Amirul Ansari, a mason from Murshidabad’s Domkal who has been in Sandeshkhali for over 30 years, said the torture was not limited to forcible signing of lease documents.
“I don’t have land here but I saw what happened in the past three-five years. Those who were not willing to hand over their land even after pressure saw saline water pumped into their plots. I don’t want to participate in the politics going on here, but the charges are correct,” Ansari said.
Ansari's remarks are 'secular (or for that matter Sickular)' confirmation of the serious allegations and hence the Trinamool Congress is no longer able to say that all that's being said about Sandeshkhali is BJP's and RSS's campaign.
Even a few days ago, Mamata Banerjee had said, "Do not forget one RSS wing was always very active in Sandeshkhali".
Irrespective of the fact whether RSS has been active in the region or not; TMC's double standards now stand exposed. While she may be still considered a key 'secular' player of the I.N.D.I alliance; the fact of the matter is -- her government and her party today stand exposed.
In fact, Muslim-appeasement as a virtue she had inherited from her Congress past and also political legacy of the communists. Interestingly, the Left parties are still part of the I.N.D.I alliance. And it is to be noted that CPI-M leader Brinda Karat could visit Sandeshkhali rather easily as against the hurdles faced by a galaxy of BJP leaders including the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhkari.
The CPI-M will soon face the pressure of handling the Sandheshkhali differently. They can't be part of the same alliance with Mamata.
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| Aunt and her nephew Abhishek: Receiving end |
The BJP has already targeted 35 seats in the state out of 42. These include several traditional TMC bastions including Diamond Harbour -- the seat represented by Mamata's nephew Abhishek. Among BJP strategists, the realistic assessment is 30-32 seats by the Mamata Banerjee-outfit will have to concede 'moral defeat' if BJP tally touches around 25 itself.
In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, TMC had won 19 seats and by 2011, the leftists were out of power in the state. The BJP already won 18 seats in 2019 even as the Mamata returned to power in 2021.
But what is electorally important is that she returned to power only at the cost of communists and the Congress. Both these entities could not open account in 2021 in state polls.
Mamata's ground is so-called sickular ground and the space is slipping away gradually. This is the reality.
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