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Kolkata witnesses a feminist movement that will stand strong in its history. A few ventilator feminists will also be recorded.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee took to the streets with other TMC women to protest the rape and murder of a 31-year-old post-graduate trainee doctor in R.G. Kar Medical Hospital. Just a week after the horrific crimes, she demanded justice for the doctor. An appeal to…..herself. She is the current Home Minister, Health Minister, and Chief Minister of West Bengal. The public is still uncertain as to who was the protest for. Who does she expect justice from, when she is the Home Minister heading Kolkata Police? Questions remain unanswered.
More such missteps were apparent from the morning after the crime, when this horrific incident was circulated as a suicide – even though there were injury marks all over her severely broken body. In fact,
Kolkata Police tried so hard to close the investigation and downplay the case by cremating her in a rush while the investigation was on and the crematorium was full. All of this led to initial anger and resentment in the common public. They took to the streets massively. Every locality, every corner, every lane wanted “Justice for R.G. Kar”. In fact, when the clock struck 12 on the 14th of August, protest marches were being carried out in at least 250 locations all over the city. This had become a major civil rights movement – at a scale that the government had never even imagined or believed.
A massive failure in addressing public discontent and continuing the streak of questionable steps, a renovation was initiated inside the hospital and the principal, whose involvement was alleged, was transferred to another hospital. All of this happened while the public watched and roared in anger on the streets and even on social media. The cold attitude and the numerous ways to downplay this entire case backfired and the nation did not sit comfortably. Within a week, this issue was on the streets of the major cities in India and even abroad. Doctors, nurses, students, teachers, lawyers and people from all walks of life marched forward demanding the resignation of CM Mamata Banerjee and stricter laws ensuring women’s safety.
This rang a bell in the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s corridors and the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill, 2024 was passed as quickly as possible. To repaint themselves gold medallists in being ‘feminists’, the West Bengal Assembly passed this Bill on the 3rd of September which received massive criticism too. The Aparajita Bill sought to amend a few provisions from the newly effected Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) by toughening the penalties in cases of child abuse and publicising the identity of a victim of sexual violence. It also lays down that the penalties for a convict if rape leads to the victim’s death or causes her to be in a “vegetative state” be only the death penalty. A hurried attempt of tweaking and misbehaving with the law resulted in the formation of this Bill. The Bill has not seen the light of the day as it lacks the
President’s accent but at least the TMC has somewhat of an Anti-Rape Bill to cover their hollow cold-blooded faces.
Following their tradition of hurried rash decisions, the WB Government schemed out ‘Rattirer Sathi’ to safeguard women working at night by asking their employers to not assign them to work at night. The regressive nature of this scheme was shown when women started losing out on job opportunities due to it.
Trying hard to live up to their ‘people-centric’ manifesto dream, Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee called the protesting doctors for a private meeting to discuss their demands and after a lot of agitation, the protesters came out unsatisfied feeling unheard. To date, the Kolkata Police Commissioner and 2 health department officials have been removed by order. Furthermore, their demand of having a State Grievance Redressal Cell to form a panel to probe those allegedly involved in threat syndicates, a state-level committee is making recommendations.
The already growing anger had a butchered fate when the government could not retain their powerful egalitarian idealist image. The protests are not just urban now, they have seen the light of rural Bengal as well. The all-words-no-work stance of the government has resulted in major public dissatisfaction and the people having absolutely no regard for anything but justice.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.