NEW DELHI: Critical of the West Bengal Women’s Commission stand in the Rizwanur Rahman case, social activists and civil rights organisations on Wednesday said it had lost its right to continue in office.
In a statement, they alleged that the Commission was being “used to give legitimacy” to the government, the police and businessman Ashok Todi, whose daughter Priyanka was married to Rahman.
The statement is critical of the Commission’s visit to Mr. Todi’s residence and subsequent statements that his daughter returned to her father’s house on her own and the police had not been harsh on her. “Should one be surprised that the Commission did not think it fit to visit Rizwanur’s family and instead went to Todi’s house which, as has rightly been said, cannot be a neutral site?
“We are pained and shocked to see that despite eminent people like Jashodhara Bagchi heading the State Commission, it has failed to maintain an autonomous position in the case; succumbing to toe the official line of the police and the State government and that too on its own initiative without any visible pressure from outside,” the statement said.
The signatories include Ram Puniyani, Uma Chakravarti, Dilip Simeon, Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Apoorvanand, Aditya Nigam and Nivedita Menon. Among the civil society organisations which have supported the activists’ stand are the Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum, the Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement, the Forum Against Oppression of Women (Mumbai), Nirantar, the Shramajibee Mahila Samity, Asmita Collective (Secunderabad) and the Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective.
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