Sandeshkhali, West Bengal — A remote, impoverished area in West Bengal in the Sundarban region along Bangladesh border has been on the boil since the second week of February. Hundreds of women hit the streets at Sandeshkhali, staging agitations demanding action against local leaders of the state’s ruling party, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC). They have alleged widespread economic exploitation and sexual harassment.
Over the past three weeks, properties of several TMC leaders have come under attack and several parts of Sandeshkhali witnessed repeated imposition of Section 144 of the CrPC that prohibits the gathering of more than four persons at one place.
In an apparent, urgent course-correction move, the administration has opened special camps to collect complaints from the public. They have even given possession of grabbed land back to some of the locals.
In the latest development, Sheikh Shahjahan, was arrested on Thursday morning and sent to a 10-day police custody by a local court. The Trinamool Congress leader is accused of alleged sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), National Commission for Women (NCW) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have all sent their own fact-finding teams to speak to locals.
While local residents fight for justice, political parties are trying to shape the narratives to suit their own agenda. If the BJP painted a communal picture through their social media posts, the TMC claimed that it was the outsiders who instigated the violence. The locals, however, have a different truth to tell.
BOOM visited Sandeshkhali and spoke to people involved in the agitation to find out the chain of events leading to one of the biggest public agitations against the ruling party during Banerjee’s 13-year rule.
BJP’s Claim: Sandeshkhali shows selective sexual harassment of Hindu women by Muslims under Mamata Banerjee rule
On February 21, the West Bengal unit of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party in West Bengal, posted on their Facebook page a caricature showing a woman in a white saree with blue borders, resembling the chief minister, carrying a man resembling Sheikh Shahjahan in a piece of green cloth resembling an Islamic flag slung across her shoulder – the way women workers often carry their children on their back.
The man is seen sexually harassing a woman, who appears Hindu due to the bindi on her forehead. The caricature itself was enough to carry the message the BJP wanted to spread but, to be sure, the accompanying caption read, “Selectively assaulting Hindu women sexually is no crime in West Bengal.”
On February 22, they shared another caricature, made of three panels. The top panel depicts a man with a skull cap and beard in ‘Pakistan’ sexually harassing a woman, who looks Hindu by the sindoor on the parting of her hair. The middle panel shows a man with a skull cap in ‘Bangladesh’ similarly harassing a woman wearing sindoor. The third panel shows a man resembling Shahjahan in ‘Sandeshkhali’ similarly harassing a married Hindu woman. The caption read, “The terrible truth of West Bengal.”
A February 10 post was more direct. It said, “Sheikh Shajahan used to selectively pick up Hindu women. They used to be kept at party offices. They would be released in the dawn after days of torture. The partisan administration kept silent despite knowing everything. By keeping quiet even while witnessing the extermination of Hinduism in the hands of Trinamool’s harmads, what message is she (the CM) sending?”
Harmad is a word used in Bengal to refer to toughs with political backing.
TMC leader Shahjahan, the fisheries ‘karmadhyaksha’ or in-charge at the North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad (district council), has been in the news since January 5, when a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) came under attack from his supporters. The ED team had gone to raid Shahjahan’s residence in connection with a public distribution system (PDS) scam.
A month later, hundreds of women started hitting the streets demanding the arrest of Shajahan and his associates. The state police arrested Shajahan from a hideout on February 29.
What Locals Say: Nothing Communal About it
Residents of Sandeshkhali 1 and 2 blocks whom BOOM spoke to said the conflict had neither communal nor a political angle. People cutting across religion and political affiliation suffered from the highhandedness of Shajahan and his close associates – Shibaprasad Hazra, Sushanta alias Uttam Sardar and Ajit Maiti, among others.
“There is nothing communal about it. The kingpins of sexual harassment were Hazra and Sardar,” said Dibakar Singha, who runs the tea stall right next to the now-closed-down, two-storied TMC office opposite the block land and land revenue office for Sandeshkhali 2 block. This office belonged to Sardar.
Singha, a tea stall owner, himself claims to be a victim of Shahjahan and his associates.
Singha himself claims to be a victim of Shahjahan and his associates. His neighbours said he had to stay away from home for several months after he refused to be a full time cook for them for a slim pay.
Bipradas Sardar of Kachharipara area highlighted how most of the TMC leaders whose houses came under attack from angry villagers over the past couple of weeks are Hindus – Shibaprasad Hazra, Uttam Sardar, Ajit Maiti, Shankar Sardar, Tapan Sardar and Haradhan Ari. The only Muslim leader chased away by the locals was Sheikh Sirajuddin, Shajahan’s brother.
In the last two weeks, two women have recorded confidential statements before magistrates, accusing TMC leaders of rape. “In the two cases where the police have applied the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 376D, which deals with gang-rape, the first has Hazra and Sardar as co-accused and the second has Hazra, his poultry farm manager Bhanu Mandal and associate Amir Ali Ghazi as the accused,” said a senior officer of Basirhat police district, of which Sandeshkhali is a part.
The officer refused to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. Sardar, Hazra, Mandal and Ghazi have all been arrested.
A woman in her 30s who lives in Majherpara of Sandeshkhali II block told BOOM, requesting anonymity, that local women dreaded Hazra and Sardar the most.
“They would summon us at odd hours. They would initially ask all women to come, at the pretext of one meeting or another, but would later ask the younger ones to stay back longer,” she alleged.
Sandeshkhali is an assembly seat reserved for the Schedule Tribes (ST), made of two community development blocks, having a total population of about 3.25 lakh, according to the census of 2011.
In Sandeshkhali 1 block, Schedule Castes (SC), STs and Muslims constitute 30.9%, 25.9% and 30.42% of the population, respectively. In Sandeshkhali 2 block, SCs, STs and Muslims make up 44.9%, 23.4% and 22.27% of the total population, respectively.
On paper, Shajahan is the fisheries karmadhyaksha of the Zilla Parishad and the president of the TMC’s Sandeshkhali 1 block unit. Hazra was the president of the Sandeshkhali 2 block and Uttam Sardar the president of the party’s Sandeshkhali gram panchayat committee within block 2. Both Hazra and Sardar are members of the zilla parishad.
But in practice, local residents allege, Shajahan was the uncrowned king of the whole of Sandeshkhali, the ‘don’, the ‘betaj badshah’. In 2023, his declared worth of properties was Rs 9.81 crore, apart from one four-wheeler and 17 motorbikes.
Allegations of sexual harassment have come mostly from Sandeshkhali 2 block, which is made of several islands in the Sundarban delta. Block 1 is on the mainland.
At the special camps that the administration has started at multiple places in both blocks to receive public complaints, both Hindus and Muslims stand in queues. Most of the allegations relate to land grabs, forceful conversion of farmland into fishery ponds and taking illegal cuts from the payments of different government schemes.
On February 26, a couple from the ST community from Uttar Khulna village in Sandeshkhali 2 block lodged a complaint alleging land grab and molestation. All six accused belonged to ST communities. (BOOM has seen the complaint but is not revealing their identity on their request.)
At a complaint receiving camp at Kathpol area in Bermajur village of Sandeshkhali 1 block, Uday Sardar named Shahjahan, Sirajuddin, Ajit Maiti, Syam Sundar Sardar and Haladhar Ari in his complaint of forceful occupation of his 2 acre land for 11 years. Jahar Ali Mollah’s complaint was against Sirajuddin for forcefully occupying his shop and land. Ayub Ali Khan accused TMC leader Salma Bibi of grabbing his land.
Sushanta Ari complained against TMC leader Haladhar Ari and Tapas Ari for taking Rs 30,000 as cuts from a housing scheme for which the family was meant to receiving Rs. 1.2 lakh. Panchanan Barik complained against TMC leader Rabin Sardar for forcing him to handover his land.
TMC’s Claims: Opposition and Outsiders Instigated Sandeshkhali Trouble
While speaking at the state assembly on February 15, chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Sandeshkhali trouble was engineered by the Union government in collusion with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological-organisational parent of the BJP.
“RSS has a base there. Riots took place there 7-8 years back. It is one of the vulnerable riot spots. We handled the situation strongly during Saraswati Puja or else there were other plans. First, they entered the area and targeted Sheikh Shahjahan through the Enforcement Directorate, and then they started the trouble by getting people in,” the chief minister alleged.
What Locals Say: Nothing Political About It
Local residents who BOOM spoke to, including supporters of the BJP, the CPI(M) and the TMC, denied any presence of outsiders before it all flared up on February 7.
“I do not know about any outsiders. The agitations and the attacks on TMC leaders are all being carried out by local people. We have heard local opposition supporters have decided that they will not allow anyone to take up TMC’s leadership here,” said Kabita Mistry, wife of Haladhar Ari, whom the TMC gave charge of Sandeshkhali block 1 after Shahjahan went into hiding.
According to Priyanka Bhuiyan of Jhupkhali village in Sandeshkhali 1 block, when Shahjahan remained absconding for two weeks and it became quite evident to the locals that he would either have to be in hiding for some time or land in jail, supporters of the BJP, the CPI(M) and even disgruntled TMC workers started getting active and vocal.
Over the past three weeks, properties of several TMC leaders have come under attack.
A report published in the Bengali daily, Bartaman, on January 21, perfectly captured the changing mood of Sandeshkhali. Headlined as ‘Peace returns to Sandeshkhali, opponents returning home’, the report said, “Opposition party workers are now roaming freely. They are freely speaking to shopkeepers who support other parties. They can be seen keeping their shops open till late in the night and stay out late.” Bartaman is known for its pro-TMC coverage.
Taking this opportunity, local BJP leaders like Bikash Sinha and Bhaskar Sardar took the initiative to celebrate the January 22 consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya with multiple events in both blocks of Sandeshkhali, locals said.
At a celebration event near the block development officer’s (BDO) office for Sandeshkhali 2, Uttam Sardar reportedly objected to the loud playing of Ram Navami songs and allegedly snached the mobile phone which was being used to play the songs on loudspeakers. This time, the organisers of the celebration confronted Sardar and he was forced to return the phone and leave the premises.
“This event told the local people that Sardar’s might had weakened with Shahjahan’s absence,” said Arun Patra, a resident of Patra Para. “Thereafter, all their opponents, including disgruntled TMC leaders, became more active.”
Villagers of Karnakhali, Naskar Para, Patra para, Pole Para, Kachhari para and Kandarpara – all within Sandeshkhali gram panchayat area in block 2 – staged a demonstration on January 31, alleging that their farmlands were forcefully turned into fishery ponds by Sardar and Hazra but they were not being paid any lease money.
That very day, at two places, at Pole Para and 8 No Kachhari Para, local residents put up locks on two sluice gates on canals that bring water from Dansa river into the fishery ponds allegedly owned by Sardar and Hazra.
The BJP’s state unit president Sukanta Majumdar posted on X a video of that agitation that very day.
According to Majher Para resident Bina Maiti, on February 5, locals from these villages went to Sandeshkhali police station to lodge a complaint and demanding that their land be returned to them. When the police refused to register any complaint, they went to the BDO, who received their complaint.
The locals also announced that they would continue a sit-in demonstration outside the police station for three hours every day until they got justice.
On February 7, when Sardar and Hazra asked locals to attend the TMC’s protest programme at Trimohoni area against the Union government’s ‘vindictive attitude towards Bengal,’ these locals asked for their dues. This led to altercations, rallies and counter-rallies. Sardar allegedly threatened the agitators with dire consequences, following which the locals chased him away. The police had to rescue him.
Since then, the tide in Sandeshkhali has turned completely against the local TMC leadership, Shahjahan and his associates. It is following this incident that opposition party activists from outside, especially those belonging to the BJP and its sister organisations, started visiting Sandeshkhali.