Kolkata Police lathicharge on ABVP activists during their march to Swasthya Bhawan, in protest against the rape and murder of a post graduate trainee doctor, in Kolkata. (PTI Photo)
A young trainee doctor raped and brutally murdered. A hospital attacked to silence dissent. These are not isolated incidents, but symptoms of a disease that has plagued West Bengal for decades: unchecked political violence
Once again, the Mamata Banerjee government is in the dock for the planned attack by goons on the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 14. It is clear that the thousand-strong crowd aimed to disrupt the doctors’ protest and eliminate evidence of the heinous rape-murder of the female trainee doctor, who was only attending to patients at that unearthly hour. Instead of taking the proper course of action, we learn that the college principal has been shifted to a plum post elsewhere.
Surprisingly, the chief minister led a protest march, leaving people bewildered. Her blaming ‘Ram’ and ‘Vaam’ for the attack on the hospital is not only off the mark but also juxtaposes a venerable religious icon with atheistic communism — “yoked by violence together,” as Samuel Johnson might have said about incompatible comparisons. The question being asked everywhere is this: Was this protest rally against her own government? After all, law and order are the responsibility of the state government, and moreover, the home ministry is under Mamata’s charge. I was reminded of the late Jyoti Basu, who was deputy chief minister in the Left Front government led by Ajoy Mukherjee.
The cult of political vendetta and violence has grown multifold over the years in West Bengal. This was particularly evident during the last Assembly elections in 2021, which were marred by widespread violence. At the time, newspapers reported the loss of scores of lives and attacks on thousands of properties, leading to the displacement of some seven thousand people to Assam, although, understandably, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee denied any violence. How those who did not vote for her party were singled out and punished through arson, rape, and murder remains unprecedented in post-independence India.
The chief minister denied these allegations, but when the National Human Rights Commission submitted its report on the violence to the Kolkata High Court, atrocities were revealed. Furthermore, a report by civil society members pointed to planned violence orchestrated with the help of Bangladeshi infiltrators, alleging some 15,000 such cases in just 16 districts!
It is indeed a sorry state of affairs in a state once known for great spiritualists and humanists like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, and Rabindranath Tagore. The land where Goddess Durga is worshipped with such gusto and reverence has been besmirched by the bestial treatment of a female trainee doctor. How the tide turned is a matter of grave concern and inquiry. Political scientists believe the malaise can be traced back to 1969, when the fall of the Left Front Government paved the way for a different kind of politics, one rooted in violence. The Trinamool Congress, though expected to change course, not only adopted the Left’s modus operandi but has gone one up on it. The argument appeals to common belief that the one waiting to take over the reins of power must be more ruthless than the ruler of the moment.
Whatever the history and explanations for the rise of violence to this extent in West Bengal, attempts must be made to set things on the right course. One hopes against hope that justice will be served for the victim of this heinous crime— a crime so horrific that its details could leave an ordinary person sleepless for many nights, though the thick-skinned politicians won’t lose a wink of sleep.
Jagdish Batra is an academic and writer, presently working as Professor & Executive Dean at OP Jindal Global University, India. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.