Mamata Banerjee letting party workers attack women: Smriti Irani in Sandeshkhali

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday launched a scathing attack on West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, alleging that the leader known for "genocide of Hindus" is now allowing her party workers to sexually attack women.

Citing the allegations made by a group of women in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district against Trinamool Congress' local strongman Shajahan Sheikh, Union minister Smriti Irani said that the West Bengal CM is trading the dignity of vulnerable communities.

Irani alleged that Banerjee is known for "genocide of Hindus". "That she will now allow her men to pick out young Hindu married women to rape them night after night in the Trinamool office cannot be articulated in mere words," she said while translating the details of the allegations in Hindi and English made against Sheikh.


"The question is can we, as citizens, be mute spectators," the Union minister asked, accusing Banerjee of trading the dignity of vulnerable communities like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for "political benefits".

Noting that the chief minister holds the charge of the home department also, Irani, in an apparent swipe at the Congress, said those who are leading a yatra for justice in the country are also keeping mum on the issue.

It is a state-sponsored assault on Hindus, she alleged.

West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Monday morning reached Kolkata from Kerala, and went straight to Sandeshkhali pledging justice for the women who claimed to have suffered abuses.

Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and several other MLAs of the party were stopped from visiting the area, with the police citing the imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.