Chaturdihi: Neither Union home minister Amit Shah nor Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee kept their promises to Bibhishan Hansda.“My daughter Rachana is 21 and has severe diabetes and thyroid. Amit Shah had said she would be taken to Delhi’s AIIMS [All India Institute of Medical Sciences] for treatment. Mamata Banerjee said that the state government would take all responsibility for her medical care. But neither of them did anything,” says Hansda.Hansda is a daily-wage labourer at a brick kiln. He is a member of the Santhal tribal community and lives Chaturdihi village in Bankura 1 Block of Bankura district, in the impoverished Jangalmahal region of Bengal.Bibhishan Hansda. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.Hansda has taken on more work as he has struggled to arrange for his daughter’s treatment. Deprived of proper nutrition and rest, he has now fallen gravely ill himself, and has an advanced kidney disease. He is no longer able to work.At present, the sole earning member of the family is Hansda’s wife, Monika, who also works as a daily-wage labourer. She is engaged in manual labour at a road construction site at nearby Poyabagan. “On days when I find work, I earn around Rs 300. If there is no work, I return home empty-handed. This is how our life goes on,” she says.The family of six needs Rs 10,000 just for the medicines of the father and daughter.“But this was not how things were supposed to be,” Monika says. “We placed our trust in the home minister and chief minister. Now, no one even recognises us anymore. Our faith has been shattered.”The Hansda’s house in Chaturdihi. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.So how exactly did a remote tribal family reach out to Amit Shah?On November 5, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amit Shah visited the Hansda home. With him were senior party leaders including Kailash Vijayvargiya, then state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, the now deceased Mukul Ray, as well as BJP members of parliament from Bankura and Bishnupur, Subash Sarkar and Soumitra Khan. Nearly a dozen other BJP leaders were with them.Their massive security blanket covered nearly 10 kilometres from Poyabagan in Bankura to Sunukpahari. The entire stretch was sealed off and brought under high surveillance, turning the quiet region into a high-alert zone.Home to just 34 Santhal tribal families, Chaturdihi appeared almost impenetrable, with not even the slightest gap in security cover. For the villagers, such an overwhelming presence of forces was a sight never witnessed before.The mud walls of Hansda’s house were painted with the words, “Amit Shah swagatom (Welcome to Amit Shah)” in Bengali, Santhali, and Hindi.Amit Shah eats at Hansdas’ house. Photo: File.Amit Shah was photographed eating a humble lunch from a traditional banana leaf at Hansda’s home. Local and national television channels broadcast these images. Footage was widely shared on social media platforms.“We believed this might finally change our Bibhisan’s destiny,” said Sanal Hansda, a retired police staff and neighbour. “When the country’s home minister himself comes to have lunch at someone’s house, how can hardship still remain in that household?”An elaborate lunch menuThe menu featured fragrant basmati rice, soft and fluffy rotis, a serving of sona moong dal, a mixed vegetable curry, fried bitter gourd, poppy seed fritters, along with sour curd and sweets. This was an assortment far removed from the family’s everyday meals.The meal was prepared and served by Monika, his sister Binapani and several women from the neighbourhood, who worked together in the kitchen to host the high-profile guest. Amit Shah’s handle on X said: “Had amazing Bengali food at Shri Vivishan Hansdaji’s home in Chaturdhi village. No words can express their warmth and hospitality.”Locals indicated that it was common knowledge that the Bharatiya Janata Party had informed the state administration in advance about the home minister’s visit to Bankura for a party programme, along with his plan to have lunch at a tribal household. Following this communication, state police reportedly selected Bibhisan Hansda’s residence for the occasion. All ingredients for the meal were supplied to the household, and are likely to have been paid for by the BJP. Hansda himself has refused to divulge details on how he afforded the meal in the several meetings that this reporter has had with him since.Amit Shah at Hansdas’ house. Photo: File.However, despite Hansda’s name making it to Shah’s X post and forming a part of news broadcasts on Shah’s visit, Hansda said he was not allowed to approach Amit Shah and remained standing outside for most of the time that Shah ate inside.After the lunch, while on his way to attend a party meeting at Bankura Rabindra Bhaban, Shah briefly paused to pose for a photograph with the family. Waving his hand he remarked, “Phir milenge hum log (We will meet again).” But that meeting never took place.Amit Shah with Bibhishan Hansda. Photo: File.“I had told reporters that day that my daughter, then 15, was suffering from severe diabetes. I had hoped to inform Amit Shah personally, but the level of security was so strict that I was left stunned. I could not convey any of this to him,” Hansda told reporters.The following day, when Hansda’s anguish was reported in the media, Shah responded from New Delhi, saying that Rachana would be brought to AIIMS for treatment. Later in the year, on November 25, 2020, CM Banerjee, at an administrative meeting at Rabindra Bhawan in Bankura, instructed district administration to take responsibility for Rachana’s treatment.Hansda says he went to Delhi with money sent by the local BJP leaders but that he could not meet Amit Shah there. “I went to the home ministry office and was turned away. My daughter did not receive treatment at AIIMS. We did not know anyone else there, so we came back,” he says.Cut to last week, when The Wire found him sitting outside his sombre home in Chaturdihi, left largely alone. Sitting quietly beside Hansda was his elderly mother Phulmoni. Rachana, a recent graduate of the Bankura Saradamoni College, was sitting beside her father.“My blood sugar level is still above 450. I also suffer from thyroid disease. I often feel dizzy. But I want to live and don’t want to die,” Rachana says.Monika, Rachana and Bibhishan Hansda. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.“I had to bring Rachana back from New Delhi without treatment. Dr Subash Sarkar the BJP MP from Bankura used to provide some money every month for her medicines. Additionally, for the first few months, insulin was supplied by the district health department, but later we were informed that there was no supply available. After that, the district health authorities stopped providing any assistance,” says Hansda. After Sarkar lost in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, all support stopped. “When I approached him again for help with my daughter’s medicines, he told me that he was no longer an MP and therefore unable to assist.”Hansda claims that he reached out to Niladri Dana, the BJP MLA from Bankura, but he did not respond.Sarkar tells The Wire that whenever Bibhisan Hansda had asked for assistance with medicines, help had been provided. “Similar help will continue to be extended whenever requested,” he says.On the other hand, a district health official from Bankura, requesting anonymity, says, “I had heard that insulin was being provided to Hansda’s daughter. Whenever it is still being now, I am not aware.”Overworked, Hansda says he can barely walk, and is no longer able to work. “I suffer from intense pain in my lower abdomen,” he says.The Hansdas’ household. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.In a desperate attempt to survive, the family has been selling off their last assets. “We had several cows and goats at home. One by one, we are selling them to buy medicines. Even then, we cannot afford all of them,” Hansda says.The burden extends to his son, Mrinal Hansda, a second-year student of Bankura Christian College. “I can no longer bear the cost of his education,” Hansda says.The family has been eating plain boiled rice every day, managing to buy vegetables only when there is extra money from Monika’s daily labour work.