The Bantola rape case, 1990.
Anita Dewan (Deputy District Extension Media Officer), Uma Ghosh (Senior Officer, West Bengal Health Department), Renu Ghosh (UNICEF and WHO Representative, Delhi), Avni Naiya (Driver). - beyond WB, not many people know their names. Who were these people?
To know who they are we have to travel back in time to a cursed 30th May, 30 years ago. WB was then under the rule of Jyoti Basu, the “great leader” of those who had nothing. The era of the so called golden age of left rule.
Coming back to the main incident:
On 30th May 1990, after completion of a vaccination programme in Gosaba, three health officers were returning to Kolkata. At around 6:30 pm, when they reached Bantola on the Eastern bypass road, 4-5 men tried stopping the car near the CPM party office, but the driver sensing something wrong, didn’t stop. Unfortunately the car overturned while trying to flee, and immediately another 10-12 group of men arrived on the accident spot. The people inside the car were dragged out, and the car put on fire. The driver Avni Naiya tried to stop the men but they crushed his genitals as a punishment for protesting. He was later taken to SSKM hospital where his autopsy revealed 43 injury marks on the body. Avni naiya died on 4th June 1990 at 5:40 am.
This was the case of the driver. What happened to the rest?
The three women officers were dragged to a nearby paddy field and gangraped by the goons. The one who tried to stop the rapists was killed. The police reached 5 hours later, and transferred the naked bodies of the 3 women to the emergency department of National Medical College, and the doctors too thought all three were brought dead. However, soon they realised two of the three women were still alive, and their treatment started.
The dead woman was Anita Dewan. While her autopsy was going on, the lady doctor who was performing the autopsy fainted at the spot after discovering a one foot long metallic torch inside Anita Dewan’s private parts.
WB’s then health minister Prasanta Sur said the villagers had mistaken the women as child kidnappers & traffickers. The CM Jyoti Basu said - such things keep happening….
Now, why did the Bantola gangrape take place? The ex director of Asian development bank D. Bandhopadhyay had said in his talk with Sumonto Banerjee that the funds for rural development sent by the UNICEF was completely misused by the village CPM run panchayats.
Anita Dewan had learned of this misuse and appropriation of funds, and after collecting the required evidences from Gosaba was attacked by the communist goons on her way back to Kolkata. When the car was burned, all evidences were burned with it.
Anita Dewan not only lost all her painstakingly collected evidences that day, she lost her dignity and her life too, for trying to expose the CPM government.
Another 30th May went by, the names Anita Dewan and Avni Naiya still wait for Justice as none of their killers ever received any punishment.
Just one story from the long book of CPM brutalities, a party which WB will never forgive or forget.
@sardesairajdeep Aap waise zindagi bhar hi aisa suited butted corporate chut*y* ban k rahoge kya..... Have u ever thought of Indian welfare ever in your life
@mohsinaliisb To bhaukne waala kutta pehle bhi tha issiliye Haider ka channel se usne laath mar kr nikal di thi aur abhi bhi utna hi bhaukta hn Suar ki tatti
@IncomeTaxIndia@FinMinIndia Dear, Honourable Departments, I am a responsible taxpayer and it's saddening that I am unable to file it digitally as the website is not working.. Please help me in saving my hard earned 5000 rupees and facilitate something to enable me to file it
@MirYanaSY Yana only radical Muslims who behave like traitors & in their subconscious mind are Pro-Pakistani, only they must be degraded but not the patriotic Muslims like u, Shami or a genius like APJ Abdul Kalam etc etc.. We r proud of our patriotic Muslims whose hearts throb for India ❤️
Many many years ago, I learnt Hebrew out of curiosity, and in a bid to penetrate into a world that I once thought was evil and conspiring against Arabs and Muslims. Once in, I was surprised how wrong I was, how wrong almost every Arab and Muslim around me was.
These days, I watch Hebrew networks (and Arabic ones). There is a lot of Israeli pain over those who were killed on 10/7, agony of those who survived, and anxiety over those who are held hostage by Hamas. A lot of tears, now mixing with tears over fallen soldiers fighting in Gaza.
The thing about all this Israeli pain is that it is almost exclusively in Hebrew. The world does not see Israelis hurt, does not hear them cry. The world sees Israel as fighter jets raining death to punish those who killed them from 15000 feet above ground. The world only sees and hears pain coming from Gaza, and the world always takes the side of the underdog, even when the underdog is guilty. One billion Muslims certainly have a much louder voice than 20 million Jews, and the world will always blame Israel, even when Palestinians started the carnage.
And that's exactly why Israelis are fighting the fight of their lives. They understand that the world is an unfair place, and that they cannot rely on non-existent international justice or biased global opinion.
I wish I had a magic wand to make fellow Arabs, and the rest of the world, see what I see. There will never be peace without justice, and using our numbers (Muslims) to impose our narrative is one way to try to beat Israel, but not the way to peace. My voice will dissent. I want peace, and peace is incumbent on winning the trust of those we want to live in peace with, not keeping on instigating the world against them.