Abhishek meets tribal trio who were made to crawl, assures action

Kolkata: Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday evening met the three tribal women in South Dinajpur’s Tapan who were asked to crawl for a kilometre after they left BJP and came to join TMC. After speaking with them, Banerjee said the party and the administration would take strong steps in the case.

Referring to the April 7 incident, Banerjee told reporters, “This (incident) cannot be supported in any civilised society. Be it Trinamool Congress, or any other political party. The state administration took a strict stand that whoever were involved in the incident would not be spared. Two persons have been arrested, they have been in custody for a long while and are now out on bail.”

Banerjee said, “We had learnt that our women’s wing president had some involvement in this. Having learnt of it, the party removed her within 24 hours and replaced her with Snehalata Hembram.” He added, “Today I have met the three ST sisters and had tea with them. They have confided in me a few things. It will be improper to speak about it in the media. But I want to make it clear that however big a leader is, if they are involved in this, they will not be spared.”

Banerjee’s efforts to address the Tapan issue came after he met the North Dinajpur party leadership in Itahar, where he stayed overnight. Around 25 leaders, including MLAs, attended the meeting. However, Islampore’s 11-time MLA Abdul Karim Chowdhury skipped it. Chowdhury had earlier chosen not to attend Banerjee’s public meeting in Islampore — merely 1.5km away from his home.

After the meeting, Banerjee visited the Tebhaga Movement Martyr Memorial in Balurghat. He interacted with kin of the martyrs, who expressed their disappointment over not receiving houses which they had applied for. Banerjee assured financial assistance of Rs 50,000 each to all 14 families.

At his several public rallies, Banerjee slammed BJP for practising vendetta politics: “I ask the BJP leaders to fight Trinamool Congress politically. Do not harass the poor. BJP leaders can abuse me as much as they want, but you have to release the dues of the people first.”

He also said that no amount of harassment by ED or CBI would deter him and he would not bow down to BJP.