A nation scarred
No words are enough to condemn the horrific rape and murder of a young doctor on duty inside the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (Cover story, September 20). The suspected involvement of the staff of the hospital in the assault only adds to the horror. If this is the fate of a doctor, one shudders to think of the plight of the ordinary woman on the street.
Mahatma Gandhi once remarked that India would attain true independence only when its women could walk freely on the roads at night.
B. Suresh Kumar
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Although the word “rape” is forceful enough to convey the brutality of such inhuman acts, the horror of the R.G. Kar Hospital rape-murder case cannot be adequately described in words. To add insult to injury, the hospital authorities and the State have played ducks and drakes, causing an unprecedented outcry in West Bengal and elsewhere in the country. The “Bengal wants its own daughter” slogan that the Trinamool Congress coined in 2021 for the Assembly election campaign has boomeranged badly on Mamata Banerjee, and the women-friendly mask of the party has slipped.
Ayyasseri Raveendranath
Aranmula, Kerala
Were it not for the mounting public anger against her government’s alleged complicity in shielding the perpetrators of the horrific rape and murder at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Mamata Banerjee would not have tabled the Aparajita (anti-rape) Bill. In any case, its real import lies not in the provisions of the law but in political posturing. Earlier, in instances like the Park Street, Kamduni and Hanskhali cases, Mamata followed a tried-and-tested pattern, from destroying evidence to shielding perpetrators, to keep institutional corruption and misogyny under wraps. The new anti-rape law is just another act of desperation to save Mamata Banerjee’s standing among women voters.
Laws to prosecute such crimes already exist, but they fail to act as a deterrent against rising crimes against women. Despite the laws being rewritten after the horrific Nirbhaya case of 2012, nothing seems to have changed. In West Bengal, the lines separating Trinamool Congress workers from the local goons is increasingly getting blurred. Now the question is whether the State government has the political will or capacity to deal with the problem. Mamata will have to necessarily walk the tightrope between challenging the vested interests in her own party and winning back people’s trust.
Sudipta Ghosh
Jangipur, West Bengal
The R.G. Kar Hospital case has not only shaken the conscience of the nation but also shone the spotlight on the politician-police nexus, which is why such heinous crimes are committed without any fear by the perpetrators. Despite the unprecedented public outcry, the West Bengal government chose to play blame games instead of nabbing the culprits. Both political parties and society are to be equally blamed because they either selectively blow up the incidents to their advantage or turn a blind eye. Stringent punishment handed out without delay invoking the existing laws is enough rather than waste time demanding a new law every time. The need of the hour is gender sensitisation at every level of society.
K.R. Srinivasan
Secunderabad, Telangana
Bangladesh
Sheikh Hasina’s ouster was the culmination of 15 years of centralisation and consolidation of power, maladministration, crony capitalism, and uncontrolled corruption (“Time for turnaround”, September 20). The interim government of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus should first ensure that minority Hindus are not targeted.
It is a travesty of destiny that the daughter of the man known as the “Father of Bangladesh” had to flee the country in haste and disgrace. One is reminded of the toppling of Rajapaksa’s government in Sri Lanka last year. This is a warning to countries where democracy is not respected and preserved and where the voice of the people is suppressed.
M.Y. Shariff
Chennai
COMMents
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