The horrific accounts of women, allegedly raped and tortured over multiple nights by TMC goons are the stuff of horror stories. Only this isn’t fiction, it is very real and as one disturbing account after another, finally makes it to the news channels, one cannot help but be incensed by the sheer impunity with which these political beasts abused the local population, most of whom belong to the SC and ST community.

The man whose name is being repeatedly mentioned by the victims is Shahjahan, a powerful member of the TMC with supposed direct links with the top leadership of the party. According to reports this man, was an overlord and ruled by fear.

He had access to all he wanted even the bodies of women. According to the victims, they were identified by their religion ie Hindu and their looks. Once grabbed from their homes, they were kept in the local office and threatened with dire consequences if they didn’t submit, if their husbands protested, they were brutally beaten.

These young women were raped continuously and had no recourse to any justice, even the police it is being reported were hand in glove with these political thugs. This issue is particularly shocking, since the Chief Minister of West Bengal is a woman, she is also the undisputed and all-powerful leader of the TMC.

If her party men under her watch can carry out such abuses, what does it say of her commitment to women? On social media the usual suspects are quiet, avowed feminists like Sagarika Ghose, journalist and now TMC nominee to the Rajya Sabha, who has praised Mamta’s courage as a woman but has nothing to say of the sexual abuse of poor SC/ST women who have been subjected to by the party, on whose recommendation she will find a place in the Rajya Sabha. Is Mamta’s courage only limited to nominating women of privilege to the Rajya Sabha or does her courage extend to protecting poor and marginalised women from the debauchery of her party men?

The country and especially its women are watching.

Disclaimer: Advaita Kala is an author and writer, views expressed in the opinion piece are those of the author.