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An island limps back to normalcy amid tensions, fears

By, Sandeshkhali
Feb 04, 2025 06:08 AM IST

Pushpita Das returns to paddy farming in Sandeshkhali after reclaiming land from TMC leaders amid ongoing political tensions and upcoming elections.

It was around mid-day and pale wintry sun of a late January day had burnt away the morning mist over Majherpara village in Sandeshkhali island. Bending over and wading through ankle-deep water, 35-year-old Pushpita Das was busy transplanting paddy saplings in rows, in a plot in front of her hut.

Ahead of one year of violence against women at Sandeshkhali, vandalised farm house of arrested TMC leader Shibaprasad Hazra over land grab and violence against women remain abandoned at Sandeshkhali, North 24 Parganas Dist, West Bengal. (Sameer Jana/HT Photo) PREMIUM
Ahead of one year of violence against women at Sandeshkhali, vandalised farm house of arrested TMC leader Shibaprasad Hazra over land grab and violence against women remain abandoned at Sandeshkhali, North 24 Parganas Dist, West Bengal. (Sameer Jana/HT Photo)

“I am cultivating paddy on this land after a gap of four years. Uttam Sardar (the local Trinamool Congress strongman) illegally grabbed acres of village lands and introduced saline water in them to cultivate prawns. Villagers got back their land last year after violent protests broke out on the island,” Das remembers, speaking in Bengali.

Sandeshkhali hit the headlines in the first week of February last year when the riverine island in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district was rocked by violent protests, mostly led by village women, over allegations of sexual abuse and illegal land grabbing by some local TMC leaders and strongmen.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made the land grab and abuse a major issue ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, referring to the Sandeshkhali protests in almost every campaign they addressed in the state. The party even nominated one of the victims Rekha Patra as its candidate from the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency in which Sandeshkhali falls. She lost; the TMC’s Sk Nurul Islam won the seat.

And Sandeshkhali faded from the national headlines through the second half of the year.

In late January, HT revisited the island, around 75 km southwest of Kolkata.

Last year, after protests erupted in at least four villages – Sandeshkhali, Jeliakhali, and Bermajur I and II — in Sandeshkhali II block, TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides Uttam Sardar and Shibaprasad Hazra were arrested (the first on February 28, and the second and the third on February 10 and February 17) on charges of land grab and sexual assault. the state’s TMC government started returning the land to the actual owners on February 18.

“Soon after the protests, the district administration set up camps in the villages from the third week of February to receive complaints from villagers related to illegal land grabbing. After proper verification the lands were returned to the rightful owners. In all around 270 families have got back their farmland. The total area would come to around 100 acres,” said Arun Kumar Samanta, Block Development Officer of Sandeshkhali-II block.

But as the farmlands were turned into fish farms and remained submerged under saline water for two to three years, scientists and agriculture-experts were sceptical whether the land returned could be used for agriculture immediately and without extensive remediation.

“The longer land stays under saline water, the longer it will take to revive. The thumb rule is that if land is under water for a year, it will take two years to revive. It takes double the time,” Chittaranjan Kole, former vice chancellor of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (an agricultural university) , said in March 2024.

The agriculture department, however, tested the soil and found that the standing saline water had not done much damage to the farmlands and agriculture was still possible.

“Farmers were supplied with salt tolerant paddy seeds and a series of training sessions were organised over the next few months to train them on how to grow paddy in saline soil and yet get a good yield. Farmers were advised to start the paddy cultivation a little late so that the monsoon rains could wash away some of the salt from the top soil. Organic carbon was added to the soil for better yield,” said Chowdhury Monirul Haque, assistant director of agriculture, Sandeshkhali block-II.

Several farmers started cultivating paddy after September 2024. The harvest was beyond their expectations, some of them claimed.

“I was sceptical in the beginning over the yield . But with the help of the district agriculture officials many of us returned to farming again. The yield was little less than normal when we harvested in January this year, but we got at least 8 -10 sacks of paddy from one bigha land. Normally the yield is 12 - 14 sacks of paddy in this region,” said Nityabala Sardar, a farmer. A bigha is a traditional measure of land that amounts to0.6 acre.

Sardar had around one bigha land which was forcefully grabbed by Uttam Sardar. She too got back her land in February last year and cultivated paddy after a gap of four years.

Some farmers have now planted their second crop.

“Last time we grew paddy; the yield wasn’t bad. This time, we are again growing paddy. With every monsoon the yield will grow as the salt will get washed away. Next year, I plan to grow mustard, potato and a few vegetables too,” said Debabrata Kandar, 48, who, along with his sister inherited around eight bighas of land which was grabbed by Uttam Sardar.

Politically charged

The political flags of both the ruling-TMC and its arch rival the BJP can be seen in the bustling Dhamakhali market, the adjoining jetty ghat and the market area surrounding the Sandeshkhali jetty ghat across the Kalindi river.

On December 30, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee went to Sandeshkhali for an event, her first visit to the island since protests erupted on February 7, 2024.

The TMC has sought to pass off the events of last year as protests against corruption and exploitation by local leaders, with no involvement of its central leadership.

“I am aware of the money-game that was played here. Later every allegation turned out to be false. Lies can’t hold on for long. They ultimately gets exposed. Let bygones be bygones. I don’t remember it. I have forgotten it,” Banerjee said in December at the event.

Within 24 hours of Banerjee’s meeting on the island, Suvendu Adhikari, her one time protege, and now a BJP legislator and leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly said that the BJP would set up a commission to probe into the Sandeshkhali atrocities and send Mamata Banerjee to jail when the party comes to power in the state.

“Everything is peaceful now. There is no need to worry. The dust has settled down,” said Sukumar Mahata, the TMC MLA of Sandeshkhali .

But there is a definite political undercurrent that remains.

The Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Sandeshkhali assembly seat, has been a TMC stronghold since 2009. In Sandeshkhali II block, where the riots broke out, people from the scheduled castes and tribes and Muslims make up 44.9%, 23.4% and 22.27% of the total population, respectively.

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Sandeshkhali remained politically charged. Shahjahan and his aides Sardar and Hazra were arrested and the party suspended them. On April 10, the Calcutta high court ordered a court-monitored CBI investigation related to incidents in Sandeshkhali.

As the Lok Sabha polls approached the two rival parties released a series of videos with the TMC alleging the BJP orchestrated the unrest with fake complaints and the BJP uploading videos featuring women who alleged that they were threatened by the TMC.

The BJP fielded Patra, one of the woman protesters, as its candidate from Basirhat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called her up and addressed her as Shakti Swarupa (a personification of the goddess Shakti, worshipped in West Bengal as Durga). The TMC relied on Islam, a former MP and a sitting MLA. The TMC won the seat by a margin of 3.33 lakh votes.

Locals said that even though the elections are done, the politics continues.

Patra, who earlier used to stay in Sandeshkhali with her family, has since moved to Kolkata where she now works. But she remains part of the BJP.

“I go to Sandeshkhali once or twice a week and am also giving time to the party as far as I can. Veiled threats are still continuing to those who joined the protests. Even a few days back my father in-law was intercepted by some men in the village late in the night. Villagers are silent now but the anger is still there,” she claimed.

The assembly elections aren’t too far away; they are scheduled for the first half of next year. Not surprisingly, the state government and the district administration are treading cautiously.

Electoral implications

Back in February 2024, when the protests first erupted, allegations also surfaced against the local police and their apathy to complaints lodged by the villagers against Shahjahan and his aides and the state is working to address these.

“Over the past six months we have started organising police camps in the villages on various islands. Villagers who stay in remote islands need not come to Sandeshkhali island to approach the police. We are reaching out to them so that they can lodge any complaints. The camps are set up once every fortnight or a month,” said Balay Ghosh, officer-in-charge of Sandeshkhali police station.

And the district administration is ensuring that government schemes are not plagued by corruption and nepotism.

“The state government has released the money for the Banglar Bari scheme (a state-funded housing scheme for the poor). We are ensuring that there isn’t any corruption and no local political leader are able to demand any money from the villagers,” said a senior district administration official who asked not to be named.

The district administration is also helping the villagers to develop alternative sources of livelihood and has been distributing pigs, ducks, goats.

The police had registered several cases against the villagers in connection with the 2024 rioting. “Those cases are still going on, but all those arrested are out on bail now,” said a police officer.

While Shahjahan and Hazra are still in jail, Sardar is out on bail, although he has stayed away from the village.

The poultry farms of Hazra in Sandeshkhali, which were ransacked and set on fire by an angry mob stand testimony to the violent protests that rocked the island a year ago.

And while the violence will hopefully not return, whichever way the cases against the trio go, many expect the politics surrounding Sandeshkhali to peak ahead of the 2026 elections.

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