TMC MP Nusrat Jahan responds to criticism on Sandeshkhali row: ‘I have always…'

All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MP Nusrat Jahan in New Delhi.

Trinamool Congress MP and actor Nusrat Jahan on Sunday responded to the allegations of her absence and silence on the unrest in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali.

Nusrat Jahan said that as a woman and as a public representative, she always followed her party’s guidelines and served the people.

“It is heart-wrenching waking up to such allegations,” Jahan wrote on X while sharing a newspaper report that quoted Sandeshkhali residents as saying that she had forgotten them. “As a woman, as a public representative I have always followed my parties guidelines and served the people. With the Sandeshkhali incident raging, Our Hon CM has already send Help.. and necessary steps are being taken for the welfare of the people.”

The actor-turned-politician wrote this in reply to a newspaper article that quoted villagers expressing their disappointment with Nusrat that the MP did not visit Sandeshkhali – which comes under her Lok Sabha constituency – in the last five years. “There is no cinema hall in Sandeshkhali but still we travel 40 km to see Nusrat’s movies. But she did not come once to visit us at a time like this,” a woman said as quoted in the news report.

Sandeshkhali has been on the boil since early this month following allegations of land grabbing and sexual abuse of women by TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan. Women had hit the streets demanding the arrest of Shahjahan and his aides.

The area came into limelight on January 5 after an Enforcement Directorate team arrived to arrest Shahjahan was attacked by a violent mob, injuring three officials.

Also Read | Sheikh Shahjahan, his associates tortured tribals, took wages: Sandeshkhali probe team

In Sunday’s post, Nusrat Jahan said that she has genuinely served the people in her constituency.

“We are not above the law.. thus abiding by it and supporting the administration is what one needs to do. I have genuinely served the people in my constituency, in times of joy, in times of trouble.. I act in accordance with the guidelines of my party.. and I believe we must have faith in the state govt and administration,what is wrong shall always be condemned,” she wrote on social media.

The Trinamool Congress leader further added: “We must refrain from targeting each other and come together to help create peace and not commotion. People’s security and welfare is our top priority. Rest who says what about whom does not matter. Like I said before. I’d repeat again “STOP POLITICISING”,” she said.

Fresh protests in Sandeshkhali

On Saturday, fresh protests were reported in some pockets of the trouble-torn areas of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district even as two ministers of the Trinamool Congress-led government visited the region.

A team comprising state irrigation minister Partha Bhowmick and fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose visited some of the trouble-torn areas of Sandeshkhali, around 80 km south east of Kolkata.

“There are some grievances among the villagers. Their lands were grabbed and turned into fish farms. We are verifying the allegations. We will address them,” Bose told reporters.

The government has so far received more than 500 complaints related to land grabbing from villagers of Sandeshkhali over the past one week.

So far, 18 people, including local TMC leaders Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, both close aides of Shahjahan, have been arrested in connection with complaints of sexual assault, land grabbing and inciting violence in Sandeshkhali.

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