Got Report On Bengal Violence, Action After Discussion: Minister

Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy has said that he has received a report by Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), a civil society group, on the post-poll violence in West Bengal and the next step will be taken after discussions with Home Minister Amit Shah.

He said that members of the group have worked as fact-finding committee and talked to victims who faced "atrocities" including "rape and murder by TMC workers".

He said apart from the group, reports have also been given by various committees.

"They have given the report to the central government. The next step will be taken after discussions with the Home Minister," he said.

He alleged that Trinamool Congress workers have worked in an undemocratic manner in a democratic system and "resorted to goondaism" and said the government was being run against the constitution and the "police was working as spectators and like TMC workers".

He said it was the duty of the state government to maintain law and order and provide protection to people but it was not doing so and the central government will take it up in the coming days.

Monika Arora, a Supreme Court lawyer who is part of the group, said that the marginalised section of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been the worst sufferers of violence. She said local Trinamool leaders went in groups and "resorted to stone-pelting" as ''khela hobe'' song was played.

She said that the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women, Nation Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights should take cognizance of the cases.

Ms Arora said the commissions should inquire and issue the necessary summons. She said they told the minister that the state police chief and Chief Secretary should work "according to law," Cases should be registered, arrests made and "rule of law should prevail".

"The minister has assured us that he will look at this aspect seriously," she said.

The report ''Khela in Bengal 2021: Shocking Ground Stories'' said that women have been singled out "for most horrific terror and intimidation" in the post-poll violence in Bengal with victims primarily belonging to very marginal sections of Hindu society that are BJP supporters.

It has recommended SIT probe under a retired Supreme Court judge and NIA investigation "as the gruesome violence may have cross border terror angle".

The report said that treating the violence in Bengal merely as "political violence" is to trivialise the horrors faced primarily by marginal sections of Hindu society who supported or voted the BJP".

It said that the "TMC model of violence to win elections and retain power" was at play in state assembly elections. The report also said that "state machinery was used for violence against the political opponent thus this bears the marks of a pogrom".

The report said that women have "been raped, stripped beaten and violated in the most horrific ways," crude bombs have been used, men murdered and shops and ration cards looted".

Victims primarily belong to very marginal sections of Hindu society that are BJP supporters or voters," it said.

The Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), a civil society group in New Delhi, said they interviewed 20 victims of the post-poll violence in West Bengal and these were conducted online on platforms like Zoom and Goggle meet as well as on phone due to reports of total lawlessness in the state.

"We have to recognise this violence as an outcome of the inter-sectional gender, caste religious, and economic identity of the victims. We contend that this violence was in the nature of a pogrom against political opponents. All present mechanisms of law be it the Supreme Court or various National Commissions must discharge their statutory duty to protect women and children of Bengal," the report said.