A middle-aged mother of two was asked to squat more than 100 times holding her ears in a village in Midnapore, West Bengal, for opposing booth capturing by activists of the Trinamool Congress during the recent panchayat election. Ironically, the woman’s husband, Gopal Patra, has been a member of the TMC and an outgoing panchayat member in the locality.
Patra told THE WEEK, “This is like Taliban punishment. I will stop doing my political activities.”
Local Trinamool Congress leaders admitted that such incidents had happened.
Ajit Maiti, president of the TMC in Midnapore, said “I have heard such incident happened. Our party would not accept this. Our chief minister is a woman.”
The victim had reportedly shown her sandals to protest the rigging of votes by TMC activists on Monday. After the results were announced on Friday, a group of TMC members barged into her house and allegedly dragged her out. They then thrashed her in front of the local residents.
The group then asked her to hold her ears and squat. She was also made to wear a garland of shoes.
The woman started crying as she was humiliated in front of around 100 people in the village. She pleaded for mercy, but in vain.
After squatting for more than 50 times, she slumped to the ground. She was then allowed to go inside her house after she offered an unconditional apology.
BJP vice president Biswapriya Roychowdhury came down heavily on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Look how she treats her own party men. One can understand what then the situation will be of other political parties opposed to her. We will report this to the national women’s commission,” said Roychowdhury.
Patra said his constituency had become a reserved seat for woman so, he did not receive any ticket this time. On the polling day, Patra was himself thrashed by TMC members in charge of the panchayats in the area. The victim protested the assault on her husband as well. Then, the couple saw TMC members engaged in rigging and protested. “My wife showed the sandal she was wearing. She asked them not to engage in rigging,” said Patra.
In gram panchayats all over West Bengal, BJP stood second and won more than 20 per cent of the total panchayat seats that went to polls, which has been considered to be one of the most heavily rigged elections in West Bengal in the recent years.