Imagine that a woman was brutally raped and murdered and the state government responsible for ensuring the safety of its residents decides to hold a ‘protest’ to justice for the victim. Sounds outrageously absurd? This exactly is what is happening in West Bengal, wherein Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced protests demanding punishment for the perpetrators of the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. A civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy was arrested in this case and has reportedly confessed to his crime.
CM Mamata Banerjee announced that on 17th August, her party will organise a protest march in all the blocks demanding the punishment of the criminal. Then on 18th August, there will be a demonstration in all the blocks and on 19th August, a program to demand capital punishment of the guilty will be organised.
Mamata Banerjee gives ‘deadline’ to CBI amidst mob attacks on protesting doctors
Mamata Banerjee wants the culprit to be hanged and has ‘demanded’ that the CBI to should complete this by Sunday (18th August). The alarming audacity of a sitting chief minister to shift the onus of serving justice to the victim on the central probe agency makes it evident that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is desperately trying to shift the blame on the Centre and wash their hands off their responsibilities. TMC’s political game is so shamelessly impeccable, on one hand, the state government is giving a ‘deadline’ to the CBI, and on the other, has announced a massive protest just a day before the farcical deadline ends.
Police watch as goons arrive by truckloads, vandalise the medical college
Meanwhile, protesting doctors are being assaulted by goons who also vandalised the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital premises on 14th August. The mob comprising over 50 people stormed into the hospital attacking doctors and even tried to enter the building where the junior doctor was raped and murdered while the police remained a mute spectator. It is also alleged that the ruling TMC government orchestrated the attacks.
Violence breaks out outside RG Kar hospital in Kolkata, crowds storm the emergency ward, reports @Journo_Rajesh on @IndiaToday: pic.twitter.com/9FtHYMJc8R
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 14, 2024
"They are beating us continuously. They will beat us. We came here for the protests."
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) August 14, 2024
LOOK AT THIS YOUNG WOMAN CRYING HELPLESSLY SAYING THAT THE MOB IS BEATING UP PEOPLE. THIS IS AN UTTER SHAME FOR THE TMC GOVERNMENT.#MamataMustResign https://t.co/gZ2yG82Ek3 pic.twitter.com/5wCqrOVm3P
It looks like the ‘deadline’ for justice has been decided by the state government after much deliberation as the sequence of events suggests that by the time, the CBI investigates the case, most of the evidence will be destroyed and protestors be silenced. With the narrative in control, CM Banerjee will shift the blame of her own incompetence on the Centre saying that the CBI failed to give justice to the deceased victim.
While Mamata Banerjee wants the CBI to hang the culprit by Sunday, her government is accused of protecting those involved in the case. After the semi-nude body of a PG trainee doctor was discovered inside the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College on the 9th of August, the hospital management informed her family that she had committed suicide.
The CBI is an investigating body. They cannot decide the punishment. It is the judiciary’s job to decide what punishment the culprit will get.
In fact, the Calcutta High Court chastised the state government for protecting Dr Sandip Ghosh, the principal of RG Kar College, and stated that there was an attempt to cover up the horrific crime by labelling it a suicide. It is worth noting that Ghosh resigned amidst protests, and was immediately appointed as the principal of the state government’s Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH) on the same day. The fact that Calcutta HC transferred the RG Kar medico rape and murder case to CBI after the victim’s parents raised concern that the probe under Kolkata Police would derail, indicates the local police failed to conduct an impartial and thorough investigation.
OpIndia reported how the medical college authority demolished the walls of the Chest Medicine Dept, where the girl was raped and murdered, in the name of renovation. BJP has alleged that the state was trying to tamper with the evidence in the case by breaking the walls. In the wake of these incidents, Mamata Banerjee shrewdly attempted to protect her government and the state police from criticism over her failure to ensure justice by shifting the ‘burden’ on the CBI.
Mamata Banerjee goes the AAP way to shun accountability, hog media attention, and politicise a heinous crime
While Mamata Banerjee’s announcement of protests raises questions like who is she protesting against, the Kolkata Police, the culprit or herself since she is the Chief Minister, there is another aspect to this: manipulating the narrative. At present, this horrific incident has left the country agitated and shocked, with media showing how the medicos are peacefully protesting in West Bengal and other parts of the country and how they were assaulted in Bengal in police presence. However, as the state’s Chief Minister herself will stage a ‘protest’ demanding ‘justice’ even though ensuring the safety of people is her job, the visuals of attacks on protesting medicos will be replaced with CM Banerjee protesting. More than the injustice that happened to the victim, there will be discussions on how Mamata Banerjee stood for the deceased victim.
As Chief Minister, Banerjee is directly responsible for upholding law and order in West Bengal. Her position necessitates swift and fair action to preserve the safety and security of the state’s residents, rather than organising or engaging in protests as if she is an outsider to the state’s governance or an opposition leader.
The sheer inanity of a sitting Chief Minister protesting against the very system she controls highlights a failure to take responsibility for the state’s governance and respond promptly and decisively to such horrible crimes. Instead of leading from the front and ensuring that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice, although a lack of the same forced Calcutta HC to hand the probe to CBI, Banerjee’s protest apparently, an excuse to deflect accountability and appear sympathetic, rather than addressing the underlying causes of the systemic failures that led to this tragic incident.
Incidentally, the TMC government’s conduct in West Bengal reminds one of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in New Delhi. AAP has traditionally been following the mantra “behave like government in normal days, behave like opposition in crisis”. Be it the ‘Pani Satyagraha’ and fast unto-death drama performed by Water Minister Atishi when the national capital faced water crisis and shamelessly blaming neighbouring states for the same, AAP successfully deflected accountability for its own failures by making the Centre and neighbouring Haryana and Himachal Pradesh villains, as well as shifted media attention from Delhi people running after water tankers to Atishi’s health allegedly deteriorating due to the ‘anshan’ and she being rushed to the hospital.
Banerjee appears to be distancing herself from the administrative failures under her watch by organising protests, aiming to rebrand herself as a sympathetic leader who stands with the victim. This tactic, however, is merely a superficial gesture rather than a genuine response to the horrifying crime. In the face of public outcry, it appears that she is attempting to clean up her own image. These are hollow stunts of CM Banerjee to keep herself in the news and weave a favourable narrative while failures of her administration are glaring on everyone’s face.
It is a blatant politicisation of the brutal rape and murder of the trainee doctor and has nothing to do with ensuring justice for the victim. Suppose the CBI concludes its investigation by Sunday as the ‘deadline’ given by CM Banerjee. In that case, she will pat her back and say “Together we fought and got justice for the victim” If the CBI takes more time in the investigation, the TMC will say that the Centre is anti-woman and insensitive and does not want the victim to get justice etc. By giving a deadline to the CBI, Mamata Banerjee created a win-win situation for herself. She deliberately gave the CBI a deadline to “hang” the accused since deciding if the culprit should be given life imprisonment or a hanging sentence is the judiciary’s job and not that of the CBI.
What an irony that the victim’s family had to move to court over concerns that the case investigation under local authorities would be derailed and demand a CBI investigation, the state’s leader has the audacity to give a deadline to the CBI to hang the culprit by Sunday.
Fail in own job, create drama, then blame the center for everything: Mamata Banerjee has been doing this for a long time
Back in 2019, Mamata Banerjee had tried to blame the Centre to deflect attention after cyclone Fani hit India’s eastern coast with Odisha and coastal areas of West Bengal getting severely affected. Banerjee had claimed that while PM Modi spoke to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik after Cyclone Fani, he did not bother calling her. Mamata Banerjee and her party had claimed that PM Modi spoke to the governor of West Bengal and not to the CM after the cyclone was ‘an attack on the federal structure’ of the state. However, it was later clarified by the PMO that the PM’s staff had attempted twice to get CM Mamata over the phone to speak with the PM, without success. On both occasions, the PM’s staff were told that she would return the call which never happened.
The ongoing doctors’ protests remind one of a similar agitation in 2019 after two doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital were attacked by relatives of a patient Mohammad Sayeed who died during treatment in June 2019. Instead of addressing the grievances of the doctors, Mamata Banerjee accused them of being ‘outsiders.’ “They are outsiders. The government will not support them in any way. I condemn doctors who have gone on strike. Policemen die in the line of duty but the police don’t go on a strike,” she had said.
Back then, CM Banerjee had given a strict ‘deadline’ to the protesting medicos to return to duty, however, she was compelled to soften her stance and give assurance to ramp up security in hospitals.
Besides shifting the blame on the Centre, CM Banerjee also takes delight in blaming the victims for their situation to cover up her administration’s failure to uphold law and order. For instance, she had earlier insinuated that violence occurs when Hindus take out Ram Navami processions through ‘Muslim areas’ and also attempted to give a clean chit to the Islamists by invoking their Faith and Ramzan.
Mamata Banerjee and TMC have a knack for dismissing or downplaying rape cases
Sadly, crimes against women are not unusual in TMC-ruled West Bengal. It was seen recently, how Tajamul Haque ran his ‘Sharia court’ and thrashed a woman in Taliban style by throwing her to the ground while parading another woman tied up in the streets. Chopra’s TMC MLA, Hamidul Rehman even justified the act, referring to West Bengal as a ‘Muslim Rashtra’. The nation witnessed how Shahjahan Sheikh, who assaulted the ED officials, and his henchmen sexually assaulted tribal women in Sandeshkhali, and the Supreme Court rebuked the state government for shielding him.
There have been many incidents when CM Banerjee displayed her ignominious insensitivity towards women victims despite being a woman herself. In April last year, she claimed that the alleged ‘rape and murder case in Kaliganj was a ‘love affair’ gone wrong. It was reported that a Dalit woman was discovered floating in a canal in the Kaliagunj area in Uttar Dinajpur district. It was reported that the victim was raped before being murdered.
In 2022, she tried to downplay allegations of brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl as a ‘love affair’ gone wrong. Similarly, back in 2012, Mamata Banerjee had absolved those accused of raping an Anglo-Indian woman Suzette Jordan in the Park Street in Kolkata. Banerjee said that the incident as ‘shajano ghotona‘ (concocted incident), which was allegedly ‘designed to malign the government.’ In 2013, Banerjee linked rising rape cases in the state with rise in population.
Coming back to the present RG Kar Medical College and Hospital case, CM Mamata Banerjee should prioritise ensuring security and law and order rather than shifting blame and politicising such a serious issue for political gain. The people of this country will remember how a sitting Chief Minister was organising protests to shift attention away from administrative shortcomings rather than ensuring thorough investigation and justice for the victim.
