“Rekha Patra, other than being a woman, belongs to the SC Poundra-Kshatriya community. This is demeaning not only towards her but also offensive towards her entire community,” Adhikari tweeted.Agnimitra Paul, another BJP leader, also criticised Hakim, asserting that his comments reflect the Trinamool Congress government’s attitude towards women. Referring to Hakim as the “right hand” of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Paul said, “‘Maal’ is a very cheap, sleazy word… a very disrespectful word towards women, and I am sure that not only Hakim, all the MPs, MLAs, and the party members of TMC think that the women of Bengal are ‘maal,’ which is ‘bhogya vastu’. We are not very shocked because this is the way your government has been treating us.”Earlier this year, Sandeshkhali gained national attention when a group of women launched fierce protests against suspended TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan, a local Zila Parishad member, and his associates over allegations of land-grabbing and sexual exploitation.Rekha Patra, who led these protests and filed the first sexual assault complaint, later contested the Lok Sabha election in Basirhat as a BJP candidate but lost to TMC’s Haji Nurul Islam.In response to the controversy, the National Commission for Women has announced it will send a team to investigate the issue.
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