BJP, Trinamool face off over women’s security in Bengal

The BJP in Bengal continued to target Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for its failure to stop violence against women as a viral video from Malda district did the rounds. The video shows a group of women assaulting two others and in the melee, the clothes of the two women fell apart.
State BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said that atrocities on women are at their peak in the State. “Atrocities against women are at its peak in West Bengal. Many more incidents have happened in West Bengal. CM Mamata Banerjee does not have the moral right to point fingers,” said Sukanta Majumdar.
The BJP shared a clip from Malda, claiming that two tribal women seen in the video were stripped, beaten up, and tortured as the police remained “mute spectators”.
The BJP claimed that Mamata Banerjee had failed to provide security to women in her State. The ruling Trinamool Congress in its response said that the BJP was needlessly politicizing the issue and the women were caught stealing, which prompted the outrage by the locals.
Amit Malviya, the BJP’s IT head and co-minder for West Bengal tweeted the purported video that has surfaced on social media of the incident, which he claimed took place on July 19 in Pakua Hat, a weekly market, of Bamangola Police Station in Malda. Malviya shared a video of two tribal women allegedly being stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly by a mob in Malda district and he claimed that the police remained “mute” spectators to the incident.
Sharing a blurred video of the incident on his Twitter handle, Malviya said: “The horrific incident took place on the morning of 19th July. The women belonged to a socially marginalised community and had a frenzied mob baying for their blood…”
He then continued to slam Mamata Banerjee, “It had all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart and she, instead of merely outraging, could have acted, since she is also the Home Minister of Bengal…”
Amidst Opposition leaders across the country accusing the BJP of mishandling the Manipur issue in which two women were stripped, paraded and raped, BJP
leaders have been highlighting similar cases of atrocities against women in States ruled by its rivals.
Malviya further said in his tweet, “Neither did she condemn the barbarity nor did she express pain and anguish because it would have exposed her own failing as a Chief Minister,”
Malviya also slammed Banerjee for her take on the video from Manipur, he said, “But a day after, she shed copious tears and screamed blue murder because it was politically expedient,” pointing out that Trinamool Congress has not yet taken cognisance of this incident.
Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani reacted to the Malda incident and told the media, “The contents of the video that is emanating from West Bengal’s Malda where two Dalit women are being beaten and stripped is shocking. The Congress is a mute spectator to the killings of people during the West Bengal Panchayat elections all because it is hungry for collaboration with TMC.”
Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar took to Twitter to ask why the newly formed opposition alliance was silent about this incident and not condemning it.