Worshipping Kali, abusing women: The perverse Bengali

If it wasn’t for some quick student intervention, in support of outraged doctors and medical support staff, the equally fast attempt at a cover-up would probably have worked. Call it the Justice For Abhaya Movement. 

The Kolkata intelligentsia, the vaunted and storied bhadralok, has lost its nerve in the face of lathi charges and tear gas. It sold out to the Mamata Banerjee government a decade ago and to the Communists who ruled for 34 years before that. The spine of the bhadralok, at the vanguard of leadership and reform in the 19th century, is broken. 

So in the beginning of this protest, it maintained a frightened silence and made only anodyne statements days later carefully vetted to avoid offending Mamata Banerjee and her cabinet. Perhaps they are more afraid of the TMC goon squads and the violence they can unleash. They are probably wise to cower under the circumstances. Certainly, they are right to not expect any help or protection from West Bengal Police if they criticise the government or the party. 

The Bengal BJP however is trying its best to attack the government via mega protest rallies. It was stopped 4 km before they could reach Swasthya Bhavan or the health ministry.

The handling of the latest ghastly rape and murder in Kolkata by West Bengal Police has shocked the whole nation in its blatant effort to destroy evidence, disturb the crime site, and protect the perpetrators. 

A criminal regime brazens it out

But then, it was just as casual in its handling of the Sandeshkhali rapes of 2024 which they blamed on the BJP, the Hanskhali rape of 2022, the Kamduni gang-rapes of 2013 blamed on the Communists, the Park Street rape of 2012 where the victim was called a prostitute. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself set the stage, with her bizarre if self-serving remarks in each instance, and the state police that report to her, took their cue from it. But this time, they might, or might not, be able to keep control.

The swaggering young principal of the R G Kar Medical College, Dr Sandip Ghosh, is the main villain of the piece. He was grilled by the CBI. Ghosh, familiar with cases like this from earlier in his career, is puffed up with state government backing. He tried to pass it off as a suicide at first. He might have got away with it by brow-beating the poor parents and withholding the broken body till they caved in. But things spiralled up rapidly.

The other doctors and medical staff, and not just in this establishment, but from all over Kolkata, West Bengal, and elsewhere in the country, the students in Kolkata and nationally, the outraged social media, the Calcutta High Court that forced the state government to hand over investigations to the CBI, the Supreme Court that took suo moto notice of the savage gang rape, torture, and murder all played their part. The relentless media coverage also did its best to prevent the cover-up and secure justice for the victim. 

After Dr Sandip Ghosh stepped down, the other senior doctors at the college were initially retained to take his place but were swept out and transferred to other government state hospitals in Kolkata, four of them in all, including the head of the department of Chest Medicine, the victim’s department, at the insistence of the student protesters. The swelling discontent is now asking for the resignation of Mamata Banerjee.

The savage treatment meted out to a 31-year-old post-graduate trainee woman doctor, an only child from a poor family, in a leading Kolkata government hospital, was reminiscent in its brutality and callousness to the Nirbhaya gang rape, torture and murder in New Delhi more a decade ago in 2012. It is as if nothing has changed between Nirbhaya and Abhaya despite the tightening of the rape laws. 

The spineless bhadralok

But the Kolkata bhadralok that should have jumped into the fray with fierce condemnation, were sorely wanting. West Bengal with its revered Durga Puja and Kali Puja coming up shortly and its pretensions to being cultured, was once thought to be most respectful of women. But, if that ever existed in reality, it does not exist now. The bhadralok, vociferous in support of various TMC initiatives, has nothing much to say in this instance. Instead, it is in agreement with the TMC line that horrible rapes followed by murders take place regularly in other states too. They are indeed unfortunate and tragic, but the state government and its police department were being singled out and unfairly targeted. Much of the opposition in the INDI Alliance echoed these sentiments too. On social media, they point out the recent rape and murder in Dehradun. They are willing to wear black bands.

To compound the lack of empathy in most cases, some said the unfortunate victim must have done something to deserve it. She was allegedly about to expose corruption involving medicines, hospital beds, sale of cadavers, and this had angered a lot of people. Was she blackmailing some people? What was she doing in the conference room so late at night? Why had she accepted night shift work at all? 

The students and fellow doctors and the odd outraged citizen protested, of course, and were threatened roundly by the TMC goons for their trouble. TMC ministers threatened to sack the protesting doctors and dock their pay till the Supreme Court said they would not be penalised. One former female TMC member of parliament was threatened with rape online for supporting the protests. A twelve-year-old boy was arrested for wishing harm to the chief minister. Mamata Banerjee is also the home minister with the police reporting directly to her.

The police did such a clumsy cover-up job that the three-judge Supreme Court bench, including the CJI, holding live televised hearings of the proceedings was appalled. Why, for instance, was the FIR filed, not by the medical college, but by the hapless father of the victim, after the post-mortem was conducted? Other reports say the FIR was filed some hours after the hurried cremation of the unfortunate victim.

Connivance of state

The question in everyone’s mind is why is Mamata Banerjee and the TMC so keen to cover up this affair. Why was the dissenting TMC functionary who spoke in favour of the victim hauled up? What was going on in RG Kar Medical College that the victim was likely to have exposed? 

How many rapists and abusers were involved, and who are they, in addition to the sole person arrested, a remorseless Sanjoy Roy, who was part of the erstwhile principal Dr Sandip Ghosh’s security team. He was allowed to live in the adjacent police barracks. This, even though he was only a volunteer and general tout. Roy is said to be mentally disturbed and perverse, with a smartphone full of pornography. He was allegedly a frequent visitor to the Kolkata red-light district of Sonagachhi. Were the other perpetrators doctors too? Sanjoy Roy is not talking.

The CBI has submitted its findings in a sealed cover to the Supreme Court (SC), and the hearings are ongoing. However, not only the Kolkata police but the West Bengal government has been criticised by the SC. 

The state government is represented by Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while the CBI is represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The SC has now mandated that the CRPF will guard the RG Kar Medical College in addition to the Kolkata police going forward. The failure of law and order, a state subject, is pointed towards. Right now, the Rapid Action Force has been brought in to control the protests.

Just like in Bangladesh, where the intelligentsia was in support of the Awami League and the erstwhile government of Sheikh Hasina, the Kolkata bhadralok is highly compromised. As they abdicated all responsibility in terms of a vocal presence, it was up to the students and opposition BNP supported by the Islamists. It was they who took the allegedly undemocratic Sheikh Hasina government down - with crucial help from the Bangladesh Army after the police failed the protestors. Will this volatile situation in Kolkata escalate into a popular revolt against the Mamata Banerjee government? It will surely be supported by the state unit of the BJP which is the principal opposition. Meanwhile, the crackdowns against all protests continue while questions about democracy are raised, not by the bhadralok but by the media.