On one hand, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is appealing to all politicians not to play politics with the issue of the gruesome rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata’s R G Kar Hospital, but on Wednesday, she herself named Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he should “not play with fire”. She said, “If you play with fire, Modi babu, the fire will not only engulf Bengal but also spread to Delhi, Assam, Jharkhand and Odisha”. If this is not political jingoism, then what is? A responsible leader like Mamata Banerjee should not make such a remark at a time when her entire state is witnessing upheaval over the gruesome rape-murder incident. Mamata herself is the product of a mass movement. On Wednesday, she demanded that CBI should update what it has done with its probe and she praised Kolkata Police. This is her second mistake. The people of Bengal are angry with the role of Kolkata Police after the gruesome rape-murder incident. How Kolkata Police handled the case after the brutal murder, has caused widespread consternation among students.
The crime scene was tampered with, unwanted persons were allowed to the crime scene and the poor parents of the victim were not allowed for several hours to see their daughter’s body. There was considerable delay in filing FIR, and on August 14 at midnight, when a mob of lumpen elements forcibly entered the hospital to obliterate all evidence at the crime scene, Kolkata Police failed to stop the mob. The main accused, on the night of the gruesome incident, moved around the city on a police motorbike throughout the night. All these facts have caused unhappiness among the people towards the police. This resentment has been channelled into anger against her government. While Mamata Banerjee used the issue for her political ends, BJP, too, took advantage of public anger. Thirdly, when President Droupadi Murmu mentioned about the gruesome crime committed against the daughter of Bengal and said “Enough is enough”, politicians from Trinamool Congress questioned her intentions. This is not a good precedent. The President did not speak about any particular incident in any state.
She raised her voice against atrocities committed on women throughout the country by saying she was “dismayed and horrified”. Like the President, every daughter and sister is horrified and dismayed. The President mentioned the day when school girls came to her to tie rakhi on Rakshabandhan. She mentioned that some of the girls asked her, with innocence, whether they would get the assurance from her that no gruesome incident like Nirbhaya’s rape and murder will ever take place. What the President said can make anybody sad. It indicates the level of fear that has spread among girls in our country and they are worried about their safety. This is a matter of shame for all of us. Sexual assaults against women and girls are still taking place in our society. The sooner it is stopped, the better.
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