Wednesday, May 16, 2012

TMC men ‘strip’ woman for fighting hooch trader-ToI-19.4.12


Trinamool Congress men beat a 38-year-old woman, confined her near a temple, tore off her clothes and forced her to walk half-naked to her home at Kanaidighi village in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district. After the torture and humiliation in the presence of her 16-year-old son and daughter on Sunday, the woman consumed poison and was admitted to Contai subdivisional hospital. 
    Police put up a barricade around the hospital to stop “strangers” from meeting the woman. Her younger son Toton and daughter are afraid to return home. They are living at the hospital.
 
    The woman incurred the wrath of Trinamool members after she led the women in her area two months ago to demolish a local hooch shop. Her husband Keshab Das is a member of the CPM and had fled home after Trinamool came to power in Bengal.
 
    The woman’s torture was a considered move by the Trinamool men. They took the decision at a village s a l i s h i s a b h a (conciliation meeting) and had the approval of village elders, who wanted the woman to pay a “penalty” for her rebellion that caused a “huge loss to the local hooch trader”.
 
    A few days ago, state food minister Jyotipriya Mullick had prescribed social ostracisation of the CPM in a bid to spread political hatred among Trinamool ranks. Some political observers said the woman’s torture seemed a grim manifestation of the growing intolerance of the ruling party in Bengal.
 
    Das’ younger son Toton mustered courage to lodge a complaint at the police station against 21 local Trinamool members, three days after his mother was tortured. The Trinamool men had threatened him not to talk about his mother’s plight to his neighbours or leak it to the
 media. In his complaint, Toton said the miscreants had threatened to rape his mother. 
    Lying in the hospital bed, the woman said, “After the hooch shop demolition, some youth ganged up against my younger son. They accused him of creating ruckus while playing carom. A few days later, some Trinamool men told me to hold a meeting to settle the dispute. I refused.”
 
Be more mature, Katju tells Mamata
 
Press Council of India chief Markandey Katju on Wednesday said that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee should grow up and function in ademocratic manner. He was responding to a query on the recent cartoon controversy that Banerjee has been involved in. “I think Mamata Banerjee should have behaved in a more mature manner. She is no more astreet fighter, she is the chief minister...she must learn how to grow up. The manner in which she has behaved is totally unacceptable,” he said in a press interaction with members of the Indian Women Press Corps. Katju said Banerjee “must learn to be an administrator...now she is no longer in opposition. She must learn some democratic way of functioning”.

No comments:

Post a Comment