A five-member team of the Trinamool Congress arrived at Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. It will visit Bhilai Kheda village in Khandwa district, where a woman was allegedly gang-raped and paraded naked, on Wednesday.
“We have informed the Chief Secretary, the Principal Secretary, Department of Home and the Director General of Police of Madhya Pradesh about our arrival,” said Sukendu Sekhar Roy, Rajya Sabha MP, who is heading the team.
Speaking to TheHindu over telephone from Indore, Mr. Roy said he and the other members of the team — three women Lok Sabha MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Uma Soren and Arpita Ghosh and Rajya Sabha MP Nadim-ul Haque — were all set to visit Bhilai Kheda village the next day.
Mr. Roy admitted that law and order was a State subject. But matters concerning States had been raised in Parliament when the situation so demanded.
But wasn’t the visit of the Trinamool Congress team being construed as a political visit? Mr. Roy said that as MPs, they could visit any part of the country and collect information when there were incidents of torture against women, especially those from the backward communities. Their report would be submitted to the party chairperson Mamata Banerjee and she would decide the future course of action.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress website quoted Ms. Banerjee as saying, “our courtesy should not be misinterpreted as weakness.”
“Within a month, the Centre has sent two teams and it is trying to give a political colour to family feuds or property disputes. The Centre should do its work. It should not interfere in the work of Bengal Govt.,” said her statement.
“Politics of violence will not be tolerated in Bengal,” she said. “The Opposition is trying to create an atmosphere of terror in Bengal.”
