Q: In West Bengal, it is said that your cadre has failed to capitalize on mistakes being committed by Mamata Banerjee. There have been reports of rape and violence from the state but your cadre has not capitalized on these issues. Is it because of the fact that they are still in a state of shock after losing assembly elections or they have just given up?
Brinda Karat: That is a misconception. I don't know whether you are aware that in West Bengal, there has been a reign of terror precisely because my party's activists and cadres and supporters including women have refused to give up the red flag. Forget the hundreds of our cadre killed since 2011, even in three weeks of panchayat elections, we lost 24 cadres who were brutally killed because they refused to withdraw their nominations. So there is an element of terror there.
But in spite of that, I want to tell you that we are fundamentally opposed to using issues like rape for narrow political gains. It is a shame that today West Bengal has become a heaven of criminals. A state which was the safest state for women in the whole of India, has degenerated into what it is today within 2 years because of political patronage to criminals. People are seeing that and people are struggling against it and people are raising this issue. I think it will be absolutely wrong in fact to reduce it to some political ‘tu-tu, main-main' as you will see in television studios.
Q: Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, says that all these crimes are being committed by CPM cadres.
Brinda Karat: I don't think she is saying that. She is saying that all these crimes are a conspiracy against her government. So if a woman complains of rape then Mamta will say that this is a false case that has been brought up as a conspiracy against her govt. So when women who are victims of rape go to a thana in West Bengal, cases are not being registered.
What happened in Kamduni? In Kamduni, a young girl who was a colleague of the girl who was raped and murdered, raised the question as to why is the process taking so long. Mamata Banerjee just shouted at her and told her to shut up and said – You are either CPM or Maoist. So there is no room for dissent in West Bengal. Anybody who dissents is branded as from this or that party whether that's true or not? And even if it's true, so what? Anybody can have any political affiliation and still that person can raise a very valid point. The question in West Bengal is not Mamata versus CPI(M), it's Mamata versus democracy and basic individual and human rights.
