Editor,
If the countdown has begun for the end of the TMC’s rule in West Bengal just because of alleged sexual atrocities in Sandeshkhali, it’s simply a wonder why the countdown should not begin for an end to the BJP’s rule in India simply because of the mayhem in the ‘double-engine’ governed Manipur, continuing for more than 10 months, with hundreds killed, lakhs displaced, and horrendous incidents of women paraded naked, gangraped and murdered, bringing utmost shame and disgrace for the country in front of the international community?
A high and mighty has wondered that the soul of Raja Rammohan Roy must be feeling utmost pain at the activities in Sandeshkhali. He must be told that, as an Indian, humanitarian and champion of women’s welfare, the great soul must also be feeling horrified in witnessing how even in this 21st century, little girls to women can get subjected to atrocities with no end in ‘New India’ – Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (Hathras-Unnao-Budaun), Manipur, and Kathua.
Also, it must be asked why the tears of today’s ‘champions of women’ dry up when they are paraded naked before barbaric gangrape/murder, little girl gets gangraped and tortured for days within a temple before murder, Dalit girl gets forcibly cremated after gangrape and murder or proven gang-rapists-cum-murderers are released amidst celebration with garlands and sweets. What a crude way of dirty politicisation of sexual atrocities on womenfolk through use of ‘pick and choose’ methodology. Or does the mighty get disgusted only when women of Bengal are subjected to alleged sexual atrocities? And where was the worshipper of Raja Rammohan Roy when a certain Hindu nationalist had denigrated the great man as chamcha to the Britishers who had defamed the not regressive Sati tradition?
Last but not least, though the BJP candidate who had announced to contest the Asansol Lok Sabha seat has withdrawn following a hue and cry, still it must also be asked how could a Bhojpuri singer from Bihar, notorious for his misogynistic comments and uncharitable references against Bengali women, was considered at all in the first place to contest from a West Bengal seat. What better can be expected from such an anti-Bengali force which shamelessly taunts the West Bengal chief minister as ‘Didi, O, Didi,’ terms Visva-Bharati a birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore’, accuses Amartya Sen as ‘land-grabber’ and remains associated with vandalisation of the bust of the Renaissance man Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
Kajal Chatterjee,
D-2/403,
Peerless Nagar, Kolkata